Hobbes, like Milton, was dramatically effected by the English civil war; Milton's "On the tenure of kings and magistrates" was very clearly a "Please don't ki

Hobbes, like Milton, was dramatically effected by the English civil war; Milton's "On the tenure of kings and magistrates" was very clearly a "Please don't kill me" and it's generally not read for this reason. I only recommend it if you are a huge Milton fan (which is something I strongly recommend becoming) Hobbes didn't write anything quite so... obvious, and I think we read 'leviathan' today because he makes such a clear and compelling argument against anarchy; I'm not saying it was his intent, but the leviathan can be read as tirade against Anarchy rather than a paean to tyranny. anarchy is so bad that if the only alternative is some ridiculously absolutist ruler, well, that's still better than the state of nature. My own feeling is that his support of absolutism was mostly about how people were asked to choose sides. I think you can't understand Hobbes and his weird authoritarianism without the context of the English civil war