Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes

How hard is Leviathan to read?

Leviathan scores 44 out of 100 for difficulty on ReadingRate, making it moderately challenging. The score is a weighted composite of nine measures: four of how hard the prose is to parse, five of how hard the meaning is to extract.

Vocabulary: 78 out of 100

Hobbes writes in 1651 Early Modern English, with archaic orthography throughout: 'Apparence,' 'Praedominant,' 'Beleefe,' 'Seldomer,' 'Ratiocination.' Latin terms appear on nearly every page (Ratiocinatio, Reminiscentia, Sagacitas, Summum Bonum, Pulchrum, Turpe, Finis Ultimus) alongside Greek (Logos, orme, aphorme, Pisteno, Makarismos). Scholastic technical vocabulary — 'Hypostatical,' 'Transubstantiate,' 'Consubstantiate,' 'Species,' 'Intelligible Being' — is deployed and then demolished as meaningless. Comparable to Moby-Dick in archaic register but more Latinate and more consistently demanding.

Sentence structure: 72 out of 100

Hobbes constructs long, heavily subordinated sentences with multiple embedded clauses, parenthetical qualifications, and paired enumerations. A representative sentence runs 60–120 words with 3–5 nested clauses: 'Which Object worketh on the Eyes, Eares, and other parts of mans body; and by diversity of working, produceth diversity of Apparences.' Semicolons and colons chain clauses into argumentative sequences, and Chapter IX's taxonomy of all sciences embeds a nested outline inside prose. The syntax is demanding but architecturally consistent — readers can parse it, though not quickly.

Abstraction: 90 out of 100

Leviathan is a work of systematic philosophy with no narrative, no characters, and no plot — only argument. Every chapter pursues abstract definitions and their consequences: Sense, Imagination, Memory, Speech, Reason, Science, Power, Will, Good and Evil, the State of Nature, and the Covenant. Hobbes explicitly models his method on geometry, deriving political conclusions from materialist axioms about human nature. The abstraction level is comparable to Notes from Underground (88) in philosophical intensity, but Hobbes is more systematic and less experiential — closer to pure treatise than psychological fiction.

Information density: 82 out of 100

Each chapter compresses multiple definitions, distinctions, and conceptual consequences into dense prose. Chapter IX's taxonomy of all knowledge — arranging mathematics, astronomy, ethics, rhetoric, logic, and politics into a branching hierarchy — packs an entire philosophical system into a single page. Readers encounter new terminology and conceptual chains on nearly every page, with each definition building on those that precede it. Comparable to War and Peace (80) in density, though the demand is conceptual rather than historical and narrative.

Narrative indirection: 15 out of 100

Hobbes states his meaning directly and emphatically throughout. He defines his terms, announces his method, and declares his conclusions without ambiguity or narrative indirection. There is no story to read against, no unreliable narrator, no subtext to decode — only argument presented in the explicit voice of a philosopher demonstrating theorems. Readers are told exactly what Hobbes means at every point; the difficulty lies in following the logic, not in reconstructing hidden meaning.

Symbolic density: 20 out of 100

Leviathan uses almost no symbolism. The title figure — the Leviathan as artificial man and commonwealth — is introduced as a deliberate extended metaphor and explained immediately. Hobbes explicitly argues throughout that metaphor corrupts reasoning and should be excluded from philosophical discourse. The state of nature as 'war of every man against every man' is a thought experiment framed in literal terms, not a symbol. The work's meaning is intended to be fully present on its surface.

Ironic distance: 15 out of 100

Hobbes writes in earnest throughout and means what he says. Occasional rhetorical wit appears — his dismissal of scholastic 'canting' language, his comparison of certain philosophers to Bedlam inmates, his deadpan observation that Cicero said nothing is too absurd to be found in a philosopher's books — but these are sincere polemical moves, not ironic detachment. Readers can trust Hobbes's stated positions to reflect his actual arguments; there is no gap between what the text says and what the author means.

Resolution withholding: 100 out of 100

As a systematic philosophical treatise, Leviathan provides maximum closure. Each argument reaches its explicit conclusion; definitions are established and built upon in strict order. The overall project — proving that absolute sovereignty is necessary and legitimate — is argued to its conclusion across four books. There is no ambiguity in the logical surface, no open endings, no withheld resolution. The book ends where Hobbes's argument concludes.

Structural complexity: 18 out of 100

Leviathan is organized into four books — Of Man, Of Commonwealth, Of a Christian Commonwealth, Of the Kingdom of Darkness — each divided into numbered chapters with clearly labeled topics. Within chapters, Hobbes announces his subject in the opening sentence and proceeds sequentially through his argument. The structure is transparently didactic, explicitly labeled, and strictly hierarchical. There are no timeline jumps, no POV shifts, no unreliable narrators, no formal experiments.

How Leviathan is regarded

Leviathan holds a literary regard score of 80 out of 100, weighing its place in the canon, its critical reception, its influence on other writers, and the standing of its author. Regard is measured separately from difficulty: a demanding book is not necessarily an admired one.

About the author

Thomas Hobbes