Thomas Hobbes’s Leviathan (1651) offered one of the earliest systematic accounts of human motivation, proposing that behaviour is propelled by drive-like appetites and aversions and guided by a fundamentally hedonistic psychology in which individuals seek pleasure, avoid pain, and continually strive for the removal of discomfort.
By framing motivation as a dynamic movement of the human body that is restless, ceaseless, and shaped by the pursuit of perceived goods, Hobbes revealed how inner impulses give rise to deliberate action and how the desire for security and predictable social order ultimately motivates the formation of political communities. His insights remain valuable today: on a personal level, his recognition of the role of basic drives helps individuals understand the roots of their behaviour and cultivate healthier patterns of self-regulation, while on a societal level, his analysis underscores the importance of stable institutions that channel human striving into cooperative, mutually beneficial forms.
Hobbes brought a practical perspective to our understanding of human motivation, recognising the influence of desire and the striving towards a life of greater comfort. But his view of human personhood appears not to allow for other motivators, such as the desire to live for God. We have all seen the outcome of behaviour motivated by human greed alone, and it has resulted in a world of great and lamentable inequality. Christian economics supports not merely the creation of wealth but its equitable distribution on a global scale.
From a Christian perspective, Thomas Hobbes’s account of human motivation as fundamentally driven by appetites, aversions, self-preservation, and the pursuit of pleasure can be viewed as a perceptive description of aspects of fallen human nature, yet an incomplete account of humanity’s ultimate purpose. Hobbes argued that human beings are motivated by desires that seek satisfaction and avoid pain, a position often associated with psychological hedonism (Hobbes, 1651/1996).
Christian theology acknowledges the reality of disordered desires resulting from sin (Romans 3:23; Galatians 5:16–21), a theme developed by Augustine (397/2008), who described the human heart as restless until it finds its fulfilment in God rather than in temporal pleasures. Similarly, Aquinas (1265–1274/1947) maintained that while humans naturally seek happiness, true beatitude is found only in union with God, not merely in the gratification of bodily or psychological drives. Later Christian thinkers such as Calvin (1559/1960) emphasised that human desires are distorted by the Fall and require divine grace for proper ordering.
Consequently, a Christian evaluation of Hobbes affirms that drives and pleasure-seeking are significant features of human behaviour but rejects the reduction of human flourishing to self-interested desire, arguing instead that humans are created in the image of God (Genesis 1:27) and are ultimately directed toward loving God and neighbour (Matthew 22:37–39), with virtue, worship, and communion with God providing the highest good.