Thomas Hobbes  

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Thomas Hobbes (5 April 1588 – 4 December 1679) was an English philosopher, whose famous 1651 book Leviathan established the foundation for most of Western political philosophy. He is the modern founder of the social contract tradition and considers man's life in the state of nature as "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short." He also is known for popularizing the phrase bellum omnium contra omnes and homo homini lupus.

Selected bibliography

• 1629. Translation of Thucydides's History of the Peloponnesian War
• 1640. The Elements of Law, Natural and Politic
• 1651–8. Elementa philosophica
  • 1642. De Cive (Latin)
  • 1651. Philosophicall Rudiments concerning Government and Society (English translation of De Cive)
  • 1651. Pirated Edition of The Elements of Law, Natural and Politic, repackaged to include two parts:
  • Human Nature, or the Fundamental Elements of Policie
  • De Corpore Politico
  • 1655. De Corpore (Latin)
  • 1656. De Corpore (English translation)
  • 1658. De Homine (Latin)
• 1651. Leviathan, or the Matter, Forme, and Power of a Commonwealth, Ecclesiasticall and Civil.
• 1656. The Questions concerning Liberty, Necessity and Chance
• 1668. Latin translation of the Leviathan
• 1675. English translation of Homer's Iliad and Odyssey
• 1681. Posthumously Behemoth, or The Long Parliament (written in 1668, unpublished at the request of the King)

In popular culture

• Hobbes, the tiger in Bill Watterson's comic strip Calvin and Hobbes, was named after Thomas Hobbes, while his companion Calvin was named after the Reformation theologian John Calvin.
• Monty Python mentions Hobbes as being "fond of his dram" in Bruces' Philosophers Song.