Thomas Hobbes (5 April 1588 - 4 December 1679) was an English philosopher, considered to be one of the founders of modern political philosophy. Hobbes is best known for his 1651 book Leviathan, which expounded an influential formulation of social contract theory. In addition to political philosophy, Hobbes also contributed to a diverse array of other fields, including history, jurisprudence, geometry, the physics of gases, theology, ethics, and general philosophy.

The English Civil War began in 1642, and when the royalist cause began to decline in mid-1644, some of the king's supporters fled to Europe. Many came to Paris and were known to Hobbes. In 1647, Hobbes took up a position as mathematical instructor to the young Charles, Prince of Wales, who had come to Paris from Jersey around July. This engagement lasted until 1648 when Charles went to Holland. The company of the exiled royalists led Hobbes to produce Leviathan, which set forth his theory of civil government in relation to the political crisis resulting from the war. Hobbes compared the State to a monster (leviathan) composed of men, created under pressure of human needs and dissolved by civil strife due to human passions.

In 1658, Hobbes published the final section of his philosophical system, completing the scheme he had planned more than 20 years before. De Homine consisted for the most part of an elaborate theory of vision. From the time of the Restoration, he acquired a new prominence; "Hobbism" became a byword for all that respectable society ought to denounce. The young king, Hobbes' former pupil, now Charles II, remembered Hobbes and called him to the court to grant him a pension of £100.

Acknowledgements; Introduction; Note on the translation; Key words; Principal events in Hobbes's life; Further reading; On the Citizen; Preface to the readers; 1. On the state of man without civil society; 2. On the natural law of contracts; 3. On the other laws of nature; 4. That the natural law is the divine law; 5. On the causes and generation of a commonwealth; 6. On the right of the Assembly of Man, who holds sovereign authority in the commonwealth; 7. On the three kinds of commonwealth; democracy, aristocracy and monarchy; 8. On the right of masters over slaves; 9. On the rights of parents over children, and on the Patrimonial Kingdom; 10. Comparison of the disadvantages of each of the three kinds of commonwealth; 11. Passages and examples from holy scripture about the right of kingship, which appear to support our account; 12. On the internal causes which tend to dissolve a commonwealth; 13. On the duties of those who exercise sovereign power; 14. On laws and sins; 15. On the kingdom of God by nature; 16. On the kingdom of God by the old agreement; 17. On the kingdom of God by the new agreement; 18. On what is necessary for entry into the Kingdom of heaven; Index.