Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes was an English philosopher best known for Leviathan (1651), a foundational work of political philosophy. He argued that in a "state of nature" — a condition without common authority — life would be insecure, and that people therefore rationally consent to a sovereign power under a "social contract," an agreement establishing government. He also wrote on optics, geometry, and the nature of matter, favoring a materialist account in which all phenomena are bodies in motion. He translated Thucydides and, in old age, Homer. He tutored members of the Cavendish family, traveled in Europe, and spent years in Paris during the English Civil War before returning to England.