Taking authorial liberties: Thomas Hobbes on the occasion of Leviathan

Abstract

ABSTRACT How did Thomas Hobbes describe the circumstances that, in his view, allowed him to write Leviathan? And come to express there, without apparent constraint (as many horrified contemporaries attested), his views on politics and religion? The answers to these questions lie in Hobbes’s understanding of the opportunity history afforded him to compose his masterpiece. This essay considers Hobbes as a case study in the complex dynamics of early modern authorial assertions and defenses. While Hobbes is an extreme example—few authors have had to withstand the assault Hobbes endured—his defense of Leviathan, which began in Leviathan itself and continued for decades after its publication, is representative of how a number of authors in this period justified their work by carefully framing the circumstances of its composition.