All society, therefore, exists for the sake either of advantage or of glory,
i.e. it is a product of love of self, not love of friends.
Thomas Hobbes, De cive, i.2

The International Hobbes Society (IHS) is a supportive interdisciplinary research network, which aims to promote scholarship on the thought of Thomas Hobbes by providing a platform for scholars from across the world to share ideas and exchange research.

The Society originated in 2026 from a merger between the European Hobbes Society (EHS) and the International Hobbes Association (IHA). The merger draws on the historical legacy of both networks. The European Hobbes Society originated in 2011 as an informal network of scholars working in Europe. It organised its first formal Biennial Conference in September 2016 at KU Leuven, and, from then onwards, it continued to grow its success by promoting an international community of Hobbes’s scholars through its biennial conferences, regular thematic workshops, and online paper in progress sessions. The International Hobbes Association was formed earlier, in December 1983, at the American Philosophical Association's Eastern Division meeting, where it remained a regular presence and provided a platform for showcasing the work of generations of Hobbes scholars.

In 2026 the EHS and the IHA decided to combine in a single new entity to scale-up their activities and better pursue their shared goals, renaming themselves as International Hobbes Society (IHS). The “International” in the name indicates the network’s will to spread itself as wide as its members want it to.

The International Hobbes Society exists for the advantage and glory of all its members—and, of course, the glory of Thomas Hobbes, its perennial sovereign. But, unlike Hobbes’s commonwealth, as a purely voluntary “Society”, it is much more the product of love of friends than love of self, and long may that continue.