Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes book club questions

The reading plan

Meeting 1: Part 1 to Chapter 24

1. How far can self-examination help us understand government, and where might it mislead us?
2. How should people settle disagreements when personal passions can corrupt the words they use?
3. Does explaining moral judgments through desire make those judgments more convincing or less trustworthy?
4. How convincing is the claim that equality encourages conflict rather than cooperation?
5. When obedience conflicts with self-defense, what should subjects owe the sovereign?

Meeting 2: Chapters 25 to 40

6. What makes advice worth trusting when advisers have private interests?
7. How should necessity and public harm weigh against each other when judging an offense?
8. Is it fair for public authority to treat rebels as enemies rather than subjects?
9. How should subjects judge when lost protection has ended their obligation to obey?
10. Which duty matters most for a ruler's success: public teaching, fair justice, necessary laws, or capable officers?

Meeting 3: Chapter 41 to Part 65

11. Where would you draw the line between religious instruction and a command?
12. How convincing is the claim that inward belief can remain compatible with political submission?
13. How useful is asking who benefits from a doctrine when deciding whether it deserves belief?
14. Why might a claim that a religious ruler cannot make mistakes encourage obedience, and what could challenge that claim?
15. What does unequal access to private information reveal about the relationship between religious and civil power?

Themes to talk about

Tips for the host

1. Open each meeting with one question everyone can answer, then go deeper.
2. Anyone who fell behind can catch up with the 15-minute summary.