De Cive

De Cive argues that human beings are by nature unsuited to political life—they compete, denigrate one another, and lack any natural common standard of restraint. Hobbes rejects Aristotle's thesis that humans are naturally political animals who realize their nature through citizenship. Political order is possible only when individuals abandon their natural condition of self-judgment and delegate authority to a sovereign. The work presents this argument as a 'science' of politics, deliberately putting moral virtue and civil duty beyond doubt and disagreement.

In the Epistle Dedicatory, Hobbes writes that both sayings are true: 'man is a god to man' applies among fellow citizens, while 'man is a wolf to man' applies when comparing states to one another . This distinction is absent from Leviathan and suggests Hobbes viewed the international realm as genuinely anarchic while domestic society could achieve peace. Some scholars argue this makes De Cive a more explicit source for the Hobbesian tradition in international relations theory than Leviathan, which focuses almost entirely on domestic sovereignty.

De Cive was published in Latin in 1642 for an audience of Continental savants interested in the new science, while Leviathan (1651) was written in English for a broader audience . De Cive is more compact and focuses heavily on the compatibility of scripture with Hobbes's reasoning from nature. It also contains concepts later dropped from Leviathan, including the discussion of civic happiness and the explicit distinction between domestic peace and international anarchy . Scholars have noted that De Cive's account of property rights is 'theoretically muddled' compared to Leviathan's clearer formulation.

De Cive was written for an audience of Continental savants interested in the 'new' science—the sort that rejected appeals to ancient authority and approached problems with fresh principles of explanation . Unlike The Elements of Law, composed in English for English parliamentarians and focused on local political challenges to Charles I, De Cive was a Latin work aimed at the broader European Republic of Letters. Its break from Aristotle could not have been more loudly advertised, with Hobbes rejecting the thesis that humans are naturally suited to political life after only a few paragraphs.

De Cive was Hobbes's first extended take on a 'science' of politics and was published in multiple Latin editions in 1642 and 1647, followed by an English translation in 1651 . Yet it is Leviathan that became canonical in political theory and international relations. Scholars have suggested this is because Leviathan's rhetorical power and English prose made it more accessible, while De Cive's compact, Latin, scientific format limited its audience. Recent re-translations have sought to make De Cive available as an alternate text to Leviathan in undergraduate teaching .