Leviathan is really four books: "Of Man," "Of Common-wealth," "Of a Christian Common-wealth," and "Of the Kingdom of Darkness." The first book is the philosophical framework for Leviathan. The remaining books elaborate upon the arguments presented in the beginning:
• "Of Common-wealth" discusses rights of sovereigns and subjects and goes over the legislative mechanics of the commonwealth.
• "Of a Christian Common-wealth" discusses the compatibility of Christian doctrine with Hobbes' idea of the Leviathan.
• "Of the Kingdom of Darkness" discusses false religious beliefs and argues that the political implementation of the Leviathan is needed to achieve a secure Christian commonwealth.

Hobbes starts off by considering the motions of matter, arguing that every aspect of human nature can be deduced from materialist principles. He depicts the natural condition of mankind as inherently violent, awash with fear. He claims the state of nature is the "war of every man against every man," in which people constantly seek to destroy one another. This state is so horrible that human beings seek peace, and the best way to achieve peace is to construct the Leviathan, a commonwealth head by a sovereign ruling head, through a social contract.

I can see Hobbes' influence in Locke and Hume. And while I admire the methodical way in which he wrote, in my opinion it is an extreme view to feel mankind is condemned with incurable violence or as Hobbes put it in Leviathan, a "war of all against all." And I disagree with his famous, oft-quoted statement that "men's lives are solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short."

I believe Hobbes' analysis of human nature, like everyone else's, is a reflection of his own views of himself. While I would never underestimate the power of fear, as world leaders of history have used it greatly to their advantage, there is much to be said for human dignity and empathy. There is much to be said for love and compassion.

And like Nietzsche, Hobbes also goes out of his way to speak with an atheistic attitude, all the while seeming to give credence to the very thing he does not seem to want to believe in. One can not vehemently oppose an idea, if that idea does not exist. Fighting an idea only gives that idea more power.

Hobbes' Leviathan is far too fascist and totalitarian for my tastes and I prefer Rousseau's more positive view of man. Men's behavior is a reflection of how they are treated. Or as Johann Wolfgang von Goethe put it, "Treat people as if they were what they ought to be and you help them to become what they are capable of being."