Leviathan
Written amid the chaos of the English Civil War, Hobbes’s masterwork argues that without a strong central authority human life descends into a ‘war of all against all,’ famously making existence ‘solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.’ To escape this state of nature, people surrender their freedom to an absolute sovereign—the Leviathan—in exchange for peace and security. Rigorous, provocative, and grimly logical, it laid the foundations of modern political philosophy and the theory of the social contract. Still fiercely debated today, Leviathan is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand power, the state, and why we obey.
Listen to Leviathan Audiobook Free
Listen to Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes free online. The full audiobook (11 hr 33 min, 32 chapters, read by volunteer narrators) streams free on this page.
Leviathan (1651) is a public domain work.
| # | Chapter | Length | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Introduction | 8:28 | |
| 2 | I - Of Sense | 4:46 | |
| 3 | II - Of Imagination | 13:43 | |
| 4 | III - Of the Consequence or Train of Imaginations | 12:15 | |
| 5 | IV - Of Speech | 23:39 | |
| 6 | V - Of Reason and Science | 15:21 | |
| 7 | VI - Of the Interior Beginnings of Voluntary Motions, Commonly Called the Passions; and the Speeches by Which They are Expressed | 23:50 | |
| 8 | VII - Of the Ends or Resolutions of Discourse | 10:04 | |
| 9 | VIII - Of the Virtues Commonly Called Intellectual; and Their Contrary Defects | 24:20 | |
| 10 | IX - Of the Several Subjects of Knowledge | 5:34 | |
| 11 | X - Of Power, Worth, Dignity, Honour and Worthiness | 22:20 | |
| 12 | XI - Of the Difference of Manners | 17:21 | |
| 13 | XII - Of Religion | 28:07 | |
| 14 | XIII - Of the Natural Condition of Mankind as Concerning Their Felicity and Misery | 14:03 | |
| 15 | XIV - Of the First and Second Natural Laws, and of Contracts | 33:54 | |
| 16 | XV - Of Other Laws of Nature | 41:51 | |
| 17 | XVI - Of Persons, Authors, and Things Personated | 13:52 | |
| 18 | XVII - Of the Causes, Generation, and Definition of a Commonwealth | 10:50 | |
| 19 | XVIII - Of the Rights of Sovereigns by Institution | 21:05 | |
| 20 | XIX - Of the Several Kinds of Commonwealth by Institution, and of Succession to the Sovereign Power | 24:50 | |
| 21 | XX - Of Dominion Paternal and Despotical | 20:50 | |
| 22 | XXI - Of the Liberty of Subjects | 24:15 | |
| 23 | XXII - Of Systems Subject, Political and Private | 30:41 | |
| 24 | XXIII - Of the Public Ministers of Sovereign Power | 10:22 | |
| 25 | XXIV - Of the Nutrition and Procreation of a Commonwealth | 14:10 | |
| 26 | XXV - Of Counsel | 18:20 | |
| 27 | XXVI - Of Civil Laws | 46:43 | |
| 28 | XXVII - Of Crimes, Excuses, and Extenuations | 43:45 | |
| 29 | XXVIII - Of Punishments and Rewards | 21:31 | |
| 30 | XXIX - Of Those Things that Weaken or Tend to the Dissolution of a Commonwealth | 28:05 | |
| 31 | XXX - Of the Office of the Sovereign Representative | 37:12 | |
| 32 | XXXI - Of the Kingdom of God by Nature | 27:10 |
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