Form and Power of a Common Wealth and Civil by Thomas Hobbes - Book Report/Review Example

One of the most profoundly influential works of political thought in the history of mankind, Thomas Hobbes’ Leviathan, The Matter, Forme and Power of a Common Wealth Ecclesiasticall and Civil, generally known as Leviathan, deals with the structure of society and legitimate government, and the author offers credible accounts of man, commonwealth, Christian commonwealth, and the kingdom of darkness. Of Commonwealth, the second part of the famous book is specifically concerned with the accounts of the commonwealth and the author deals with the causes, generation, and definition of a commonwealth in the opening chapter of this section. According to the author, the most important desire, cause, and end of every man is security or the foresight of their own preservation and the end of the commonwealth is the same security of its citizens. In this chapter, the author provides an important definition of a commonwealth which, according to him, is one person, of whose acts a great multitude, by mutual covenants one with another, have made themselves everyone the author, to the end he may use the strength and means of them all, as he shall think expedient, for their peace and common defense.  The next chapter of the book, Of the Rights of Sovereigns by Institution, deals with the act of instituting a commonwealth and the consequences of such institution. In the twenty-first chapter of the book, Of the Liberty of Subjects, the author indicates what is liberty or freedom and it is the absence of opposition or external impediments of motion. Suggesting what he means to be free, the author defines a free man as one that in those things, which by his strength and wit he is able to do, is not hindered to do what he has a will to do. The author also deals with several aspects of the freedom offered by a commonwealth. In short, the second part of Hobbes’ Leviathan offers an essential reading to the learners of political thought and it deals with the author’s concepts concerning commonwealth.