Hobbesian

[hob-zee-uhn]

noun

1. a person who believes in or advocates the principles of Thomas Hobbes.

adjective

1. of, relating to, or recalling the principles of Thomas Hobbes.

Word History and Origins

Origin of Hobbesian¹

First recorded in 1770–80; Hobbes + -ian

Example Sentences

In particular, he sharpens our image of the Hobbesian Thucydides, who founded the realist theory of international relations.

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Europe’s consumers and steel-using industries are the latest victims in what is in danger of becoming a Hobbesian global trade war of all against all.

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In Hobbesian terms, life in a Fincher film tends to be solitary and poor, nasty and brutish, if not necessarily short.

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This Hobbesian pronouncement arrives deep into Yorgos Lanthimos’ “Poor Things,” the latest work from a filmmaker with a career-long interest in cruelty and beasts.

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In total, the right views "society" as being a type of Hobbesian state of nature, something Darwinian, "ruled by survival of the fittest" where life is "nasty, brutish and short."

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