About the concept of nature in Thomas Hobbes: natural rights and natural law in Leviatan

Abstract:

Throughout this article we offer an analytic research of the different meanings that Thomas Hobbes gave to the term nature in the first book of his masterpiece: Leviathan. Finding up to eight different meanings for that word and its morphologic derivatives, gives us an idea of the importance of such a concept in the work and the thinking of the author. Finally, we point out a possible way to construe all those meanings synthetically, which may be used to approach the grounds of Thomas Hobbes’ contribution to western Philosophy

Key words:

Hobbes, nature, concept, Leviathan