Thomas Hobbes (5 April 1588 – 4 December 1679), in some older texts Thomas Hobbs of Malmsbury, is an English philosopher, remembered today for his work on political philosophy.

His 1651 book Leviathan establishes the foundation for most of Western political philosophy from the perspective of social contract theory.

Hobbes is a champion of absolutism for the sovereign but he also develops some of the fundamentals of European liberal thought: the right of the individual; the natural equality of all men; the artificial character of the political order (which leads to the later distinction between civil society and the state); the view that all legitimate political power must be "representative" and based on the consent of the people; and a liberal interpretation of law which leaves people free to do whatever the law does not explicitly forbid.

Hobbes also contributes to a diverse array of fields, including history, geometry, physics of gases, theology, ethics, general philosophy, and political science.

His account of human nature as self-interested cooperation will prove o be an enduring theory in the field of philosophical anthropology.

He is one of the main philosophers who founded materialism.