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Leviathan

Published in 1651 during the aftermath of the English Civil War, Thomas Hobbes's Leviathan is a systematic defense of absolute sovereignty as the only remedy for the "war of all against all" that Hobbes held to be the natural human condition. It is widely regarded as the founding work of modern political philosophy — the first to derive the legitimacy of the state from a rigorous account of human nature and a hypothetical social contract.

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Contents

  1. Epistle Dedicatory and Introduction
  2. Part I
    1. Chapter I
    2. Chapter II
    3. Chapter III
    4. Chapter IV
    5. Chapter V
    6. Chapter VI
    7. Chapter VII
    8. Chapter VIII
    9. Chapter IX
    10. Chapter X
    11. Chapter XI
    12. Chapter XII
    13. Chapter XIII
    14. Chapter XIV
    15. Chapter XV
    16. Chapter XVI
  3. Part II
    1. Chapter XVII
    2. Chapter XVIII
    3. Chapter XIX
    4. Chapter XX
    5. Chapter XXI
    6. Chapter XXII
    7. Chapter XXIII
    8. Chapter XXIV
    9. Chapter XXV
    10. Chapter XXVI
    11. Chapter XXVII
    12. Chapter XXVIII
    13. Chapter XXIX
    14. Chapter XXX
    15. Chapter XXXI
  4. Part III
    1. Chapter XXXII
    2. Chapter XXXIII
    3. Chapter XXXIV
    4. Chapter XXXV
    5. Chapter XXXVI
    6. Chapter XXXVII
    7. Chapter XXXVIII
    8. Chapter XXXIX
    9. Chapter XLI
    10. Chapter XLII
    11. Chapter XLIII
  5. Part IV
    1. Chapter XLIV
    2. Chapter XLV
    3. Chapter XLVI
    4. Chapter XLVII