Linked from

The 44 pages that link to Thomas Hobbes, each with the reason it gives.

• Political legitimacyRelated: Hobbes grounds political obedience in authorization and the need for security.

• SovereigntyRelated: Hobbes argued that a powerful sovereign could secure peace from civil conflict.

• John LockeCompared with: Hobbes’s political theory provides a sharp contrast with Locke’s account of consent and resistance.

• Social contractRelated: Hobbes makes security the chief reason people authorize an undivided sovereign.

• Jean-Jacques RousseauCompared with: Rousseau rejects Hobbes’s portrayal of natural humanity as driven by competition and fear.

• Adam SmithCompared with: Smith’s account of social order gave greater weight to sympathy, custom, and exchange than Hobbes’s account of sovereign power.

• Absolute monarchyRelated: His case for undivided sovereignty provided a distinct defense of strong government.

• Natural rightsCompared with: Hobbes grounded natural liberty in self-preservation but drew different conclusions about sovereign power.

• Francis BaconRelated: Hobbes briefly worked as Bacon’s secretary and was influenced by his intellectual milieu.

• Robert BoyleCompared with: Hobbes criticized the Royal Society’s experimental practices, which Boyle defended.

• MaterialismRelated: He developed a systematic modern materialist account of mind and society.

• Political philosophyRelated: Leviathan presents a foundational modern defense of strong sovereign power.

• Human natureRelated: His picture of competition and insecurity made human nature a problem for political order.

• MontesquieuCompared with: Hobbes grounds political order in concentrated sovereignty, unlike Montesquieu’s emphasis on divided power.

• John MiltonCompared with: Hobbes’s defense of sovereignty contrasts with Milton’s republican political commitments.

• Consent of the governedCompared with: His social contract grounds authority in authorization but permits a far more powerful sovereign.

• Political theologyRelated: Leviathan recasts biblical authority and political obedience within a theory of sovereign power.

• Political authorityRelated: Hobbes argues that authorization of a sovereign secures peace and makes political rule possible.

• CompatibilismRelated: His account became an influential early model of freedom compatible with causal necessity.

• Political obligationRelated: His account ties political obedience to authorization and protection from violence.

• Political realismRelated: His account of the state of nature offers an analogy for international anarchy.

• State of natureRelated: His state of nature makes fear and the need for sovereign authority central.

• Isaiah BerlinRelated: Berlin’s interpretation of Hobbes connects individual security with the case for political authority.

• Mechanical philosophyRelated: His materialist system extended mechanical explanation from nature to sensation and political life.

• Pierre GassendiRelated: Hobbes and Gassendi shared materialist interests but developed distinct accounts of philosophy and human life.

• CartesianismCompared with: His materialism opposes Cartesian separation of thinking substance from matter.

• Negative libertyRelated: His account is an early influential formulation of liberty as freedom from obstruction.

• Social orderRelated: Hobbes argued that sovereign power could prevent a return to violent insecurity.

• Nicolas MalebrancheCompared with: Hobbes’s materialism contrasts with Malebranche’s distinction between spiritual minds and extended matter.

• Noble savageCompared with: His account reverses the trope’s image of naturally peaceful people corrupted by society.

• Mechanism (philosophy)Related: Hobbes extended mechanistic explanation beyond physics into sensation, thought, and political life.

• Margaret CavendishRelated: Cavendish engaged with materialist ideas associated with Hobbes while developing her own account of nature.

• LeviathanBroader topic: He wrote Leviathan and developed its account of human nature and political order.

• The Theory of Moral SentimentsCompared with: Smith’s account of social sympathy differs from Hobbes’s stronger emphasis on self-interest and conflict.

• John AubreyRelated: Aubrey wrote one of the most vivid short accounts of Hobbes’s life and habits.

• Quentin SkinnerRelated: Hobbes is a recurring focus of Skinner’s studies of sovereignty and liberty.

• Adam FergusonCompared with: Ferguson emphasized social life and civic activity rather than grounding political order chiefly in contract.

• Jean BodinRelated: Hobbes later developed a distinct theory of undivided sovereignty in a political landscape Bodin helped shape.

• EgoismRelated: His account of motivation is often read as a form of psychological egoism.

• Julien Offray de La MettrieRelated: Hobbes's materialist account of human nature preceded and anticipates aspects of La Mettrie's.

• Daron AcemogluRelated: Acemoglu and Robinson revisit the problem of constraining state power while maintaining public order.

• DistrustRelated: His account of conflict under insecurity shows how fear and mutual suspicion constrain cooperation.

• Ferdinand TönniesRelated: Tönnies wrote extensively on Hobbes, whose account of will and contract informed his scholarship.

• Social philosophyRelated: His account makes security and political authority central problems of collective life.