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Tomas HobbesEnglish philosopher
Date of Birth: 05.04.1588
Country:  Great Britain |
Content:
- Early Life and Education
- Education
- Intellectual Development
- Antiquity and Bacon's Influence
- Mathematics and Geometry
- Principles of Natural and Social Philosophy
- Political Theory
- De Cive
- Leviathan
- Moral and Religious Philosophy
- Language and Metaphysics
- Influence on Subsequent Philosophers
- Later Years and Legacy
- Recognition and Influence
- Historical Significance and Impact
Early Life and Education
Early LifeThomas Hobbes was born on April 5, 1588, in Malmesbury, Gloucestershire, England. His premature birth was believed to have been triggered by his mother's fright at the news of the approaching Spanish Armada. Despite this ominous beginning, he lived an exceptionally long and productive life.
Education
Hobbes's education began at an early age. He attended school at four and studied Latin and Greek from the age of six. At fourteen, proficient enough to translate Euripides into Latin verse, he was admitted to Magdalen Hall, an Oxford University college. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree five years later.
Intellectual Development
Early InfluencesIn 1608, Hobbes became the tutor to the sons of William Cavendish, Earl of Devonshire. This marked the beginning of a lifelong association with the Cavendish family. His tutoring income provided him with the means to continue his academic pursuits. He also gained access to influential people, a first-rate library, and the opportunity to travel to France and Italy with young Cavendish, greatly stimulating his intellectual growth.
Antiquity and Bacon's Influence
Hobbes's intellectual biography, the only truly interesting aspect of his life, can be divided into periods corresponding to three journeys he made throughout Europe. The first journey in 1610 inspired him to study the ancients, since Aristotelian philosophy, which he had been taught, was considered outdated. He returned to England determined to familiarize himself further with classical thinkers.
Conversations with Lord Chancellor Francis Bacon during "delightful walks at Gorhambury," influenced Hobbes's thinking. Bacon's contempt for Aristotelianism and his belief that knowledge is power and science should improve human life, were likely passed on to Hobbes.
Mathematics and Geometry
During his second journey to Europe in 1628, Hobbes became fascinated with geometry. He discovered Euclid's Elements at a gentleman's house and was captivated by its deductive system. He believed that geometry provided a method to present his views on political organization in the form of irrefutable theorems.
Principles of Natural and Social Philosophy
Hobbes's third trip to continental Europe (1634-1636) added another ingredient to his system of natural and social philosophy. In Paris, he joined Mersenne's circle, which included René Descartes, Pierre Gassendi, and other proponents of the new science and philosophy. In 1636, he made a pilgrimage to Italy to meet Galileo.
By 1637, Hobbes was ready to develop his philosophical system. Galileo may have suggested that Hobbes extend the principles of the new natural philosophy to the realm of human activity. Hobbes conceived the grand idea of generalizing mechanical science and geometrically deducing human behavior from abstract principles of motion.
Political Theory
Early WritingsWith England on the brink of civil war, Hobbes's thoughts turned to politics. In 1640, he circulated, during the famous Long Parliament, his treatise Elements of Law, Natural and Politic, arguing for the necessity of a single, indivisible sovereign authority.
De Cive
Fearful for his life due to his openly royalist views, Hobbes fled to the continent after Parliament demanded the impeachment of the Earl of Strafford. His treatise De cive (On the Citizen) appeared shortly after, in 1642. A second edition was published in 1647, and an English version appeared in 1651 as Philosophical Rudiments Concerning Government and Society.
Leviathan
When the young Prince Charles (the future Charles II) was forced to flee to Paris after the defeat at the Battle of Naseby, Hobbes set aside his thoughts on physics and began work on his masterpiece, Leviathan (1651). With great brevity and wit, he laid out his views on man and the state.
Hobbes returned to England after receiving permission from Cromwell. His natural rights theory was used by Parliament to argue for the sovereignty of the people, while his social contract theory was used to justify the absolute power of the sovereign.
Moral and Religious Philosophy
Hobbes's political analysis rested on a mechanistic psychology. Social behavior, he believed, concealed fundamental responses of attraction and aversion, which translated into a desire for power and fear of death. Humans, driven by fear, united into society, surrendering the "right" of unlimited self-assertion to a sovereign who acted on their behalf.
In moral philosophy, Hobbes developed a naturalistic theory consistent with his mechanistic conception of man. The rules of civilized behavior (called "natural law" in Hobbes's day) were derived from the rules of prudence, which all rational beings seeking survival should accept. Civilization was based on fear and calculated egoism, not on an inherent human sociality.
Hobbes regarded religion, not as a system of truth, but as a system of laws. He devoted a large part of Leviathan to arguing that the sovereign was the best interpreter of God's will. He distinguished between knowledge and belief, declaring that we could know nothing about God's attributes.
Language and Metaphysics
Philosophy of LanguageHobbes emphasized the significance of his theory of language, which combined a mechanistic account of the origin of speech with a nominalist account of the meaning of general terms. He criticized the scholastic doctrine of essences, arguing that such doctrines arose from the improper use of different classes of terms.
Influence on Subsequent Philosophers
Hobbes's ideas on language, reasoning, and the use of definitions to distinguish man from animals foreshadowed subsequent philosophers' ideals of clarity and the use of language theory to criticize metaphysical doctrines.
Later Years and Legacy
Return to England and DisputesReturning to England in late 1651, Hobbes engaged in a dispute with Bishop Bramhall on the issue of free will, resulting in his work Questions Concerning Liberty, Necessity, and Chance (1656). He became embroiled in a humiliating controversy when his attempt to square the circle in his treatise De corpore (On the Body, 1655) was ridiculed by professors at Cambridge and Oxford.
Recognition and Influence
In his later years, Hobbes's ideas gained a wider following. He was praised by the freethinkers of the Enlightenment, and his political theory greatly influenced the thinking of philosophers like John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. His mechanistic approach to psychology and social organization proved to be highly influential in the development of modern psychology and sociology.
Historical Significance and Impact
Thomas Hobbes was a seminal figure in the history of philosophy. His ideas, while often controversial and even shocking in his own time, have had a profound impact on Western thought and continue to stimulate debate and discussion today. His contributions to natural rights theory, social contract theory, language theory, and the philosophy of science have indelibly shaped our understanding of the human condition and the organization of society.
