How did Thomas Hobbes’s views of human motivation relate to psychological hedonism?

Thomas Hobbes’s views on human motivation are fundamentally rooted in psychological hedonism, the theory that all voluntary human actions are driven by the pursuit of pleasure or the avoidance of pain.1

Hobbes posited that human nature is inherently self-interested, with individuals acting primarily to satisfy their own desires or ensure their self-preservation. He defined "good" subjectively, asserting that an object is only good if it serves as the target of an individual's appetite or desire. Even actions that appear altruistic, such as giving to the poor, were interpreted by Hobbes through this lens; he famously argued that he gave alms because the act itself provided him with the pleasure of seeing the recipient happy.1

This framework serves as the cornerstone of his political philosophy in Leviathan. Hobbes argued that because humans are rational, self-interested agents, they would naturally descend into a "war of all against all" in a state of nature. To escape this, they rationally enter into a social contract to establish a sovereign authority capable of enforcing peace.1