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Leviathan (Thomas Hobbes) - Book Review

Mere Mortals Book Reviews
Mere Mortals Book Reviews
Episode • Jan 25, 2022 • 24m

A seminal work that many people like to quote (including me), but probably haven't read (not me now).

'Leviathan' by Thomas Hobbes is a treatise on human nature/government/religion and how they all mingle. His basic argument is that human emotions & our individual rights lead to war. Therefore we need a government to contain this violence. The book is very detailed and contains lots of definitions and formal explanations of his thoughts.

I summarised the book as follows. "It's split into 4 separate sections but I could really only read the first 2. I'm not going to lie, I found it a slog & rather unenjoyable. There are snippets of interesting passages but it's a book on politics & government, subjects that are rather unappealing to me. It fixed a misconception I had about Hobbes's general outlook but it was a high price to pay.

I hope you have a fantastic day wherever you are in the world. Kyrin out!

Timeline:
(0:00) - Intro
(0:34) - Synopsis
(4:43) - Commonwealths: Why we need political communities for the common good
(12:22) - Observations/Takeaways
(22:01) - Summary


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