Hobbes’s theory regarding the hypothesis of a natural state of mankind.

Due to Thomas Hobbes’s long exile (i.e. eleven years, between 1640 and 1651) in France, at that time governed de facto by Cardinal Mazarin, the founder of Louis XIV’s expansionist policy, some researchers consider that the political work of the British thinker refers to such a kind of political leadership. Other voices, however, associate Hobbes with the way Charles I tried to lead, namely as a sovereign monarch relative to the Parliament. However, Hobbes’s correspondence with Descartes comes to clarify this issue, in fact demonstrating the enormous influence of Oliver Cromwell on Hobbes’s political work. In this article we will analyze the relationship between law and natural right in the Hobbesian work of Leviathan in order to identify the manner in which the British philosopher explains the genesis and specificity of civil society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]