# Thomas Hobbes — The Social Contract character guide

> Thomas Hobbes in The Social Contract by Jean-Jacques Rousseau.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Hobbes

**First appearance:** 0005-i-subject-of-the-first-book

## Snapshot

The English philosopher whose sovereign-as-shepherd image Rousseau mocks, then musters as a foil for the entire argument.

## Who they are

Hobbes looms over the opening books as the thinker who reduced political society to a herd of cattle guarded by a ruler who devours them. Rousseau treats this as the logical endpoint of any theory that grounds obedience in force or natural inequality, and he sets out to prove the opposite. Hobbes matters because he sharpens the stakes: if the social contract is not real, his version of sovereignty is what remains.

## In the story

### [II: The First Societies](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_social_contract_se/chapters/ii-the-first-societies)

Mentioned alongside Grotius for viewing the human race as divided into herds with rulers who devour them.

### [Slavery](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_social_contract_se/chapters/iv-slavery)

Implied in the discussion of the state of war and the right of the strongest, though not explicitly named.

### [Book II](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_social_contract_se/chapters/book-ii)

Mentioned in the context of sovereignty and the general will.

### [II: That Sovereignty Is Indivisible](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_social_contract_se/chapters/ii-that-sovereignty-is-indivisible)

Implicitly referenced as a political theorist whose views on sovereignty are challenged by Rousseau's indivisibility argument.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_social_contract_se/characters/hobbes
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_social_contract_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_social_contract_se/characters