Thomas Hobbes has 4 audiobooks on Listento.it, narrated by 4 narrators, with an average listener rating of 4.8★ across 6 ratings. The most-rated is Leviathan.
Leviathan
Summary
The leviathan is the vast unity of the State. But how are unity, peace, and security to be attained? Hobbes’ answer is sovereignty, but the resurgence of interest today in Leviathan is due less to its answers than its methods: Hobbes sees politics as a science capable of the same axiomatic approach as geometry. Written during the turmoil of the English Civil War, Leviathan was, in Hobbes’ lifetime, publicly burnt and even condemned in Parliament as one of the causes of the Great Fire of London in 1666. Its current appeal lies not just in its elevation of politics to a science, but in its overriding concern for peace, its systematic analysis of power, and its convincing apologia for the then-emergent market society in which we still live.
Public Domain (P)2008 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Leviathan
Summary
Born out of the political turmoil of the English Civil War, Leviathan stands out as one of the most in influential political and philosophical texts of the 17th century. It argues for the restoration of the monarchy in light of the republic and calls for a commonwealth ruled by an authoritative, autocratic figure with absolute sovereignty. This would put an end to all controversy, war, and fear and establish peace via social contract. Over the course of the book, Hobbes targets Christianity and contemporary philosophic methods, rejecting the idea of spirits and souls and arguing for a philosophy to end divisiveness and provide indisputable conclusions. These highly controversial theses led to book burnings in 1666 and Hobbes being dubbed the 'Monster of Malmsbury'. PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.
Public Domain (P)2017 Naxos AudioBooks
Leviathan
Summary
Brought to you by Penguin. Thomas Hobbes lived through the Thirty Years War and Britain's civil wars and the trauma of these events led to his great masterpiece of political thought. How could humankind rescue itself from life in the natural state, which was 'poor, nasty, brutish and short'? What form of politics would provide the security that he and his contemporaries craved? Vilified and scorned from the moment it was published, Leviathan was publicly burnt for sedition, but ever since it has exercised a unique fascination upon its readers, both for its ideas and its remarkable prose. Its concepts helped to drag Europe into a new world - one in which we still live today. PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
©Public Domain, 2017 Christopher Brooke (P)2021 Penguin Audio
Leviathan (AmazonClassics Edition)
Summary
In a world rife with willful chaos, how can order be restored? Philosopher Thomas Hobbes’s answer, composed amid the violence of the English Civil War, revolutionized political thought. His solution was a commonwealth, or Leviathan, a body politic ruled and protected by an absolute sovereign. Its power would be dependent on the people to exchange their freedom for the security and order of a common law. Only with this social contract, Hobbes argued, can civil peace be established. A witty, imaginative, and eternally provocative philosophical bulwark, Leviathan was burned upon publication for being seditious. It remains one of the most influential and fundamental texts of social theory ever written. Revised edition: Previously published as Leviathan, this edition of Leviathan (AmazonClassics Edition) includes editorial revisions.
Public Domain (P)2019 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.