Book description
Throughout history, some books have changed the world. They have
transformed the way we see ourselves - and each other. They have
inspired debate, dissent, war and revolution. They have enlightened,
outraged, provoked and comforted. They have enriched lives - and
destroyed them. Now Penguin brings you the works of the great
thinkers, pioneers, radicals and visionaries whose ideas shook
civilization and helped make us who we are.
The founding father of modern political philosophy, Thomas Hobbes,
living in an era of horrific violence, saw human life as meaningless
and cruel; here, he argues the only way to escape this brutality is
for all to accept a 'social contract' that acknowledges the greater
authority of a Sovereign leader.
Thomas Hobbes was an English philosopher and political theorist and
one of the first modern Western thinkers to provide a secular
justification for the political state. Regarded as an important early
influence on the philosophical doctrine of utilitarianism, Hobbes also
contributed to modern psychology and laid the foundations of modern
sociology. He lived between 1588 and 1679.
