Leviathan (Hobbes book)

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Leviathan

Frontispiece of Leviathan by Abraham Bosse, with input from Hobbes
Author	Thomas Hobbes
Country	England
Language	English, Latin (Hobbes produced a new version of Leviathan in Latin in 1668:[1] Leviathan, sive De materia, forma, & potestate civitatis ecclesiasticae et civilis.[2] Many passages in the Latin version differ from the English version.)[3]
Genre	Political philosophy
Publication date	April 1651[4]
ISBN	978-1439297254
Text	Leviathan at Wikisource

Leviathan or The Matter, Forme and Power of a Commonwealth Ecclesiasticall and Civil, commonly referred to as Leviathan, is a book written by Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679) and published in 1651 (revised Latin edition 1668).^[1][5][6] Its name derives from the biblical Leviathan. The work concerns the structure of society and legitimate government, and is regarded as one of the earliest and most influential examples of social contract theory.^[7] Written during the English Civil War (1642–1651), it argues for a social contract and rule by an absolute sovereign. Hobbes wrote that civil war and the brute situation of a state of nature ("the war of all against all") could be avoided only by a strong, undivided government.