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

Indigenous people thrived on this continent for millennia not in some kind of Hobbesian state of nature but as communities.

From Outside Online

The capacity to be gracefully refuted in an argument is largely a moral one, and decreasing one’s desire for Hobbesian “dominion” is not something that another tutorial on statistics or game theory can achieve.

From Washington Post

The disasters that follow her freeing the vast slave cities of the eastern deserts teach her some very Hobbesian lessons.

From The Daily Beast

Men are more likely to have unrealistic expectations that they would succeed, rather than fail, in this Hobbesian state.

From The Daily Beast

Jeb Golinkin acknowledges the "quasi-Hobbesian" arguments advanced by gun rights advocates.

From The Daily Beast

But those kinds of decisions are going to set off a sort of Hobbesian war of all-against-all within the Democratic coalition.

From The Daily Beast