ABSTRACT
Thomas Hobbes, author of Leviathan, was born in England in 1588. His father, the vicar of Charlton and Westport, had to leave his church post when Hobbes was young. Hobbes worked on Leviathan in Paris between early 1649 and 1651. This was a time when many significant events happened in England. Most importantly, parliament won the civil war and King Charles was executed. He used many common arguments developed by earlier thinkers to explain the shape in which England then found itself, writing in precise language to make his ideas clear, and with attention to logic to show people that his arguments were rational. Leviathan made people think about political ideas, such as the rights of the individual and the power of the state. Leviathan was an important text in its day and remains so today, contributing to current ideas of governments and power.
