Thomas Hobbes on My Mind: Leviathan, Thomas Hobbes

Hobbes's Leviathan has long been recognized as a classic in the history of Western political thought. This essay argues that this work deserves this accolade because some of the central antinomies of modern political experience—between scientific knowledge and the search for meaning, between reason and the passions in human psychology, and between the individual's will and the power of the collective—are brilliantly recounted in this work. Above all, the piece emphasizes the originality of Hobbes's construction of sovereignty through the theory of authorship and representation. The essay concludes by suggesting a feminist critique of Hobbes's view of human nature.