A bleak account of humanity's natural state as a war of all against all leads Hobbes to argue for an all-powerful sovereign as the only guarantor of peace.
Books mentioned in Leviathan (12)
Politics by Aristotle: “I know that Aristotle in the first booke of his Politiques, for a foundation of his doctrine, maketh men by Nature, some more worthy to Command, meaning the wiser sort (such as he thought himselfe to be for his Philosophy;) others to Serve…”
Metaphysics by Aristotle: “Lastly, the Metaphysiques, Ethiques, and Politiques of Aristotle, the frivolous Distinctions, barbarous Terms, and obscure Language of the Schoolmen, taught in the Universities, (which have been all erected and regulated by the Popes Authority,) serve them to keep these Errors from being detected…”
The Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle: “Lastly, the Metaphysiques, Ethiques, and Politiques of Aristotle, the frivolous Distinctions, barbarous Terms, and obscure Language of the Schoolmen, taught in the Universities… serve them to keep these Errors from being detected…”
The Republic by Plato: “I am at the point of believing this my labour, as uselesse, and the Common-wealth of Plato; For he also is of opinion that it is impossible for the disorders of State, and change of Governments by Civill Warre, ever to be taken away, till Soveraigns be Philosophers.”
Titles of Honor by John Selden: “But he that would know more particularly the originall of Titles of Honour, may find it, as I have done this, in Mr. Seldens most excellent Treatise of that subject.”
Commentary upon Littleton by Edward Coke: “Somewhat like to a piece of Law in Cokes Commentaries on Litleton; where he sayes, If the right Heire of the Crown be attainted of Treason; yet the Crown shall descend to him, and Eo Instante the Atteynder be voyd…”
Institutes of Justinian by Justinian I: “In the Institutions of Justinian, we find seven sorts of Civill Lawes.”
Theogony by Hesiod: “What kind of things they were, to whom they attributed the name of Daemons, appeareth partly in the Genealogie of their Gods, written by Hesiod, one of the most ancient Poets of the Graecians…”
History of Rome (Ab Urbe Condita) by Livy: “For in titles of Books, the subject is marked, as often as the writer. The History Of Livy, denotes the Writer; but the History Of Scanderbeg, is denominated from the subject.”
Andromeda by Euripides: “There was once a great conflux of people in Abdera, a City of the Greeks, at the acting of the Tragedy of Andromeda, upon an extream hot day: whereupon, a great many of the spectators falling into Fevers… did nothing but pronounce Iambiques, with the names of Perseus and Andromeda…”
Disputationes de Controversiis (De Summo Pontifice) by Robert Bellarmine: “yet because the Pope of Romes challenge to that Power universally, hath been maintained chiefly, and I think as strongly as is possible, by Cardinall Bellarmine, in his Controversie De Summo Pontifice; I have thought it necessary, as briefly as I can, to examine the grounds, and strength of his Discourse.”
De Concursu, Motione et Auxilio Dei by Francisco Suárez: “They are the Translation of the Title of the sixth chapter of Suarez first Booke, Of The Concourse, Motion, And Help Of God. When men write whole volumes of such stuffe, are they not Mad, or intend to make others so?”
Books that mention Leviathan (5)
Moby-Dick by Herman Melville: “Leviathan maketh a path to shine after him; One would think the deep to be hoary."”
Lent by Jo Walton: Epigraph: "Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan, 1651"
Nights of Plague by Orhan Pamuk: “hauled him straight to prison...where they caught him reading a book (Hobbes's Leviathan) in the garden”
The Passenger by Cormac McCarthy: “He went back to his bunk and got out a paperback copy of Hobbes's Leviathan.”
A Treatise of Human Nature by David Hume: “I am apt to think a travellar would meet with as little credit, who should inform us of people exactly of the same character with those in Plato's republic on the one hand, or those in Hobbes's Leviathan on the other.”