HOBBES, Thomas.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

Leviathan: First edition of the first translation of Leviathan, into Dutch, almost certainly the second edition overall following the English edition of 1651, and the text probably read by Spinoza. Leviathan offers the fullest and most famous expression of the indivisibility of sovereignty, the necessity for the state's leader to be absolute in their power, unchecked by constitutional or institutional limitations.Leviathan's thesis is exemplified by the iconic frontispiece - "the State, it seemed to Hobbes, might be regarded as a great artificial monster made up of individual men... the individual (except to save his own life) should always submit to the State, because any government is better than the anarchy of the natural state" (PMM). Much influenced by the chaos of the English Civil War, Hobbes deemed stable monarchies as the most rational and effective system of governance; any restrictions or attempts at power sharing will fracture the state and risk disintegration of social order, a prospect more fearful to Hobbes than any regimen of an absolute leader.That the first translation of Hobbes's masterpiece was into Dutch was significant, given the context of the ongoing religious dispute in the Netherlands, and for its potential influence on Spinoza. The edition's "appearance may be related to the debate over toleration in the Netherlands, where the pro-toleration States party were campaigning against the orthodox Calvinist Counter-Remonstrants. As in the English context,

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