ENGLISH LITERATURE (CBSE/UGC NET)

Detailed explanation-1: -Leviathan or The Matter, Forme and Power of a Commonwealth Ecclesiasticall and Civil, commonly referred to as Leviathan, is a book written by Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679) and published in 1651 (revised Latin edition 1668).

Detailed explanation-2: -Hobbes’s ideal commonwealth is ruled by a sovereign power responsible for protecting the security of the commonwealth and granted absolute authority to ensure the common defense. In his introduction, Hobbes describes this commonwealth as an “artificial person” and as a body politic that mimics the human body.

Detailed explanation-3: -Thomas Hobbes (/hɒbz/ HOBZ; 5/15 April 1588 – 4/14 December 1679) was an English philosopher. Hobbes is best known for his 1651 book Leviathan, in which he expounds an influential formulation of social contract theory.

Detailed explanation-4: -Because he believes that mankind is so fundamentally flawed, and because he is so frightened of the state of nature, Hobbes decides that a sovereign with unconstrained power should rule the commonwealth indefinitely. Hobbes argues that the sovereign should have unlimited rights, with no dissent or dissolution.

Detailed explanation-5: -Hobbes is famous for his early and elaborate development of what has come to be known as “social contract theory”, the method of justifying political principles or arrangements by appeal to the agreement that would be made among suitably situated rational, free, and equal persons.