How Leviathan drew on The Republic
A documented line of influence: Thomas Hobbes demonstrably engaged Plato’s work. The commentary below is Gröblé’s, verbatim from each work’s page.
The source
The Republic
Plato · c. 375 BCE
Ancient GreeceThe influenced
Leviathan
Thomas Hobbes · 1651
EnlightenmentRelevance
7/10
On Leviathan’s page
- Leviathan names its ancestor outright — Hobbes invokes "the Commonwealth of Plato" in chapter 31 and ties his hope to Plato's own
- Both books are blueprints for the just commonwealth, and both end at the same wager: order depends on the right kind of ruler
- The Republic's philosopher-king stands behind Hobbes's sovereign — reading Plato first shows you the lineage Hobbes is consciously joining
On The Republic’s page
- Hobbes engages Plato by name — in Leviathan's thirty-first chapter he invokes "the Commonwealth of Plato" directly
- He pins his own hope to Plato's: that civil disorder won't end until kings turn philosopher or philosophers turn king
- The Republic's founding question — how to design a commonwealth that actually holds — is the question Leviathan picks up two thousand years later