HOBBES

3 definitions found across Law Mind sources

HOBBESAuthored
The Law Mind • 759 words
Definition
Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679) was an English philosopher whose political and legal thought has had lasting influence on jurisprudence, theories of sovereignty, and the foundations of positive law. In legal scholarship, "Hobbes" functions as a shorthand reference to a cluster of ideas drawn principally from his works, especially *Leviathan* (1651) and *De Cive* (1642). The core Hobbesian propositions relevant to legal research are: 1. **State of nature and the necessity of law.** Hobbes argued that in the absence of a sovereign authority, human life is characterized by perpetual conflict — famously described as "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short." Law, in this view, is not discovered but created: it exists only because a sovereign power imposes and enforces it. 2. **Sovereignty and positive law.** For Hobbes, law derives its binding force entirely from the command of the sovereign. This places him at the root of legal positivism — the proposition that law is a social fact, not a moral one. Later positivists, including John Austin, explicitly built on Hobbesian foundations. 3. **Social contract.** Hobbes posited that individuals surrender natural freedom to a sovereign in exchange for security and order. This contractarian framework, though Hobbes's version produces near-absolute sovereign authority, became a touchstone for constitutional theorists and natural rights thinkers who followed, including Locke and Rousseau, often in deliberate opposition to Hobbes. 4. **Obligation and consent.** Hobbesian theory grounds legal obligation in rational self-interest and consent, not in divine command or natural justice — a position that shaped debates about the legitimacy of law and the obligation to obey it.
Common Confusion
Hobbes is frequently conflated with Locke in social contract discussions, particularly in American constitutional scholarship, where Lockean natural rights theory was far more directly influential on founding-era documents. Citing "Hobbesian social contract" in a context that actually reflects Lockean individual rights theory — including natural rights retained against the sovereign — is a substantive error. The two theorists reach opposite conclusions: Hobbes's sovereign is nearly unlimited; Locke's is constrained by the very rights that justified the contract. Hobbes is also sometimes loosely equated with Machiavelli as a theorist of power divorced from morality. The comparison has rhetorical uses but obscures important differences in their projects and methods.
Why It Matters in Research
Researchers encounter "Hobbes" most often in jurisprudential and constitutional contexts rather than in black-letter doctrinal sources. Several research traps are worth noting. First, Hobbes is frequently cited as a founder of legal positivism, but the fit is imprecise. Austin systematized Hobbes's command theory into a formal jurisprudential school; Hobbes himself was not writing a theory of law so much as a theory of political order. Conflating Hobbesian political philosophy with Austinian positivism is a common error in secondary literature. Second, in constitutional and sovereignty scholarship, "Hobbesian" is used adjectivally to describe strong, centralized, undivided sovereign authority — sometimes as praise, often as critique. Researchers should track whether a source uses the term descriptively or polemically. Third, natural law scholarship in the Law Mind corpus will frequently position itself against Hobbes. Writers in the natural law tradition (Blackstone, Grotius, later Fuller) treat Hobbes as the principal adversary. Understanding Hobbes's actual positions, rather than the caricature found in critical sources, is essential for accurate reading of those debates. Fourth, in social contract theory research, Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau are routinely grouped together despite reaching incompatible conclusions about the nature of sovereignty and the rights retained by individuals. Primary sources distinguishing the three are more reliable than secondary summaries.
Historical Dictionary Support
Rapalje & Lawrence do not include an entry for Hobbes. The source material provided under this headword in the corpus represents a scanning or indexing artifact — the text reproduced relates to "HIRING" and adjacent entries, not to Hobbes. Researchers relying on Rapalje & Lawrence for philosophical or jurisprudential figures will find the dictionary largely silent; it is a practitioner's reference focused on procedural and common law terms, not legal theory. No other shelf dictionaries in the Law Mind corpus provide a dedicated entry for Hobbes as a legal term. His influence on legal thought must therefore be traced through treatise literature, encyclopedia entries, and jurisprudential works rather than through the historical dictionary collection.
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
See Law Mind Encyclopedia — Social Contract; Natural Law; Sovereignty; Legal Positivism
Related Terms
AUSTINJOHN — NATURAL LAW — POSITIVE LAW — SOCIAL CONTRACT — SOVEREIGNTY — LEVIATHAN — LEGAL POSITIVISM — COMMAND THEORY — LOCKEJOHN — STATE OF NATURE — OBLIGATIONLEGAL
HOBBESmain
Rapalje & Lawrence • 1888
(611) are postmasters, innkeepers and common carriers. These are under peculiar regu lations consonant with public policy. (Sce HIRING, (defined). 19 Johns. (N. Y.) 44. (what is). 2 Barn. & C. 715. (what is not). 2 Watts (Pa.) 342. (of laborers, general practice in). 12 Johns. (N. Y.) 165. HIRING YEARLY, (what is). 4 Bing. 309. HIRST, or HURST. -A wood.-Domesd.; Co. Litt. 4 b. His, (in a policy of insurance). 122 Mass. 194. ang to contract. The obligations and duties for any losses not occasioned by the ordi on the part of the employer, as deduced nary negligence of himself or of his ser in the foreign law, are principally these: vants. The exceptions to this general rule (1) To pay the price or compensation; (2) so pay for all proper, new, and accessorial materials; (3) to do everything on his part to enable the workman to execute those titles, respectively. Story Bailm. c. his engagement; (4) to accept the thing vi.)-Wharton. when it is finished. If, before the work is finished, the thing perishes by internal defect, by inevitable accident, or by irresistible force, without any default of the workman, then, (1) if the work is independent of any materials or property of the employer, the manufacturer has the risk, and the unfinished work is lost to him; (2) if he is employed in working up the materials, or adding his labor to the property of the employer, the risk is with the owner of the thing with which the labor is incorporated; (3) if the work has been performed in such a way as to afford a defence to the employer against a demand for the price, if the accident had not happened (as if it were defectively or improperly done), the same defence will be equally available to him after the loss. The obligations or duties on the part of the workman or undertaker are thus summed up in the foreign law: To do the work; to do it at the time agreed on; to do it well; to employ the materials furnished by the employer in a proper manner; and, lastly, to exercise a proper degree of care and diligence about the work. 7. The hiring of care and attention. To this class belong agistors of cattle, warehousemen, forwarding merchants and wharfingers. They are bound to use ordinary diligence, and of course are responsible for losses by ordinary negligence. HIS DWELLING HOUSE, (in a policy of insurance). 16 Wend. (N. Y.) 385. HIS ESTATE, (in act concerning paupers). 13 Mass. 463. HIS HALF PART, (in a devise). 11 East 160. HIS HAND AND SEAL, (in a statute). Wheat. (U. S.) 707. - Thomas Hobbes was born gence, and to a reasonable exercise of at Malmesbury in 1588, and died in 1679. skill; and of course he is not responsible. He wrote De Cive, The Leviathan, and
Hobbesname
Wiktionary (English) • 2026
Wiktionary contributorsCC BY-SA 4.0 • via Kaikki
Extracted and formatted for display by Law Mind. Source link opens the current Wiktionary page and its contributor history; it is not a frozen copy of this extract.
A surname originating as a patronymic. | A surname originating as a patronymic. | Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679), English philosopher.

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