3. The Life and Times of Thomas
Hobbes
Thomas Hobbes was born on April 5, 1588 near Malmesbury in
Wiltshire, England.
He graduated from Oxford at age 19.
Hobbes was a tutor to the son of the Earl of Devonshire .
He translated Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War in
1629.
Hobbes visited Galileo and adopted the methods of the new
physics as the path to knowledge.
He published a three part work of philosophy including a
materialistic metaphysics, De Corpore (1655); a materialistic
account of man, De Homine (1658) and a work on the rights and
duties of citizens, De Cive (1642).
English Civil War erupted in 1642 – Hobbes fled to Paris.
Hobbes tutored Charles I son, Charles II. King Charles I was
imprisoned in 1646.
4. The Life and Times of Thomas
Hobbes - Continued
In 1649, Charles I is executed after after an unsuccessful attempt
to regain power.
In 1651, Charles II is defeated by Oliver Cromwell. Hobbes
presented Charles II with a copy of Leviathan, or
Matter, Form, and Power of a Commonwealth, Ecclesiastical and
Civil. Hobbes was forced to flee to England since those around
Charles believed Hobbes’ work supported Cromwell.
In 1660, the English monarchy was restored. Hobbes regained
his student’s favor.
In 1666, House of Commons introduced bill against atheism and
blasphemy, singling out Hobbes’ Leviathan.
Hobbes was forbidden to publish his history of the English Civil
War, Behemoth (1670).
Hobbes died of a stroke in 1679 at the age of 92.
Four years later, Oxford condemned and burnt De Cive and
Leviathan.
5. At university, Hobbes appears to have followed his own curriculum; he was "little
attracted by the scholastic learning". He did not complete his B.A. degree until 1608, but
he was recommended by Sir James Hussey, his master at Magdalen, as tutor to William,
the son of William Cavendish, Baron of Hardwick (and later Earl of Devonshire), and
began a life-long connection with that family.[10]
Hobbes became a companion to the younger William and they both took part in a grand
tour in 1610. Hobbes was exposed to European scientific and critical methods during the
tour in contrast to the scholastic philosophy which he had learned in Oxford. His
scholarly efforts at the time were aimed at a careful study of classic Greek and Latin
authors, the outcome of which was, in 1628, his great translation of Thucydides' History
of the Peloponnesian War, the first translation of that work into English from a Greek
manuscript. It has been argued that three of the discourses in the 1620 publication
known as Horea Subsecivae: Observations and Discourses, also represent the work of
Hobbes from this period.[11]
7. How is social order possible?
Hobbes aimed to produce evidence for why we
need a government based on rational argument
and evidence without reference to the ‘divine
right of kings’
8. Hobbes’ assumptions:
All men seek to avoid death and injury
Because men want a happy life, they seek sufficient power to
ensure that happy life
All men have a ‘restless desire for power’
This leads to an ‘equality of hope in the achieving of our aims’
9. Hobbes’ assumptions:
Without a power able to enforce
rules, there is chaos and misery
3 causes of conflict
men fight for gain
men fight for security
men fight for reputation
10. Implications
Everyone is pulled into a constant competitive struggle for
power
the natural state of man is a war of all against all (‘the state of
nature’)
People are insecure, and live in a constant fear of injury and
death
There is no place for industry in the state of nature, because the
fruit of it is uncertain. Hence, no
agriculture, navigation, building, culture, science
Life in a state of nature is
"solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short"
11. Hobbes – The First Political
Scientist
Hobbes viewed himself as the first political philosopher.
His predecessors errors fomented sedition, anarchy, and civil war.
The distinction between virtue and vice that was apart from
sovereign authority encouraged individuals to judge privately
and act outside of the constraints of the civil law.
This private judgment leads to tyrannicide and the chaos of the
state of nature.
Similarly badly constructed metaphysical systems encouraged
people to fear divine punishments more than the punishments
of civil authorities.
Hobbes grounds his political science in natural law and his the
father of natural right.
First political philosopher to ground his political thought in natural
philosophy.
Those seeking to govern a whole nation must understand human
passion. They must know themselves.
13. Leviathan or The Matter, Forme and Power of a Common
Wealth Ecclesiasticall and Civil — commonly called simply
Leviathan — is a book written by Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679)
and published in 1651. Its name derives from the biblical
Leviathan. The work concerns the structure of society and
legitimate government, and is regarded as one of the earliest and
most influential examples of social contract theory.[1] The publisher
was Andrew Crooke, partner in Andrew Crooke and William
Cooke. Leviathan ranks high as a classical western work on
statecraft comparable to Machiavelli's The Prince and is one of a
number of related works incident upon the crisis of the English
state framework of the time.
In Leviathan, which was written during the English Civil War
(1642–1651), Hobbes argues for a social contract and rule by an
absolute sovereign. He wrote that chaos or civil war – situations
identified with a state of nature and the famous motto Bellum
omnium contra omnes ("the war of all against all") – could only be
averted by strong central government.
14. BOOK’S CONTENT
Frontispiece
Part I: Of Man
Part II: Of Common-wealth
Types of commonwealth
Succession
Religion
Taxation
Part III: Of a Christian
Common-wealth
Part IV: Of the Kingdom of
Darkness
15. The Motions of Man and the
State of Nature (CHP-4)
The beginning of motions in the human body is called endeavor.
When endeavor moves towards its cause, it is called appetite or
desire.
When endeavor moves away from its cause, it is called aversion.
Deliberation is a weighing of appetites and aversions.
Deliberative hedonism explains the order of the universe in terms
of a calculus of pleasure and pain.
Felicity emerges from fulfilling desire and requires constant
motion.
The motion of mankind is ―a perpetual and restless desire for
power after power, that ceases only in death.‖
16. The Motions of Man and the State
of Nature - Continued
This condition makes Hobbes conclude, ―Man is a
wolf to his fellow human beings‖ and this leads the
state of nature to be a state of war.
Humans are equal because of even the weakest
has sufficient strength to kill the strongest.
Humans can also contract with others to secure
their rights.
Quarrels emerge among men because of
competition, diffidence, and glory.
The state of nature prohibits civilization.
Hobbes natural philosophy is used as a basis of
his political philosophy: It is not all together clear
that politics is not natural, but Hobbes is attempting
to do away with Aristotle’s doctrine of essences to
eliminate the private moral judgment that seems to
be the source of war.
17. Hobbes and International
Relations
Hobbes believes that survival is the most important
things for states in a state of nature.
There are no limits on what can be done in a state of
nature to advance this end.
How does Hobbes position compare to St. Thomas
Aquinas’ position?
Would Hobbes agree with President Bush’s reasoning
about how a war on terror must be waged?
Publius in Federalist number 8 argues that even the love
of liberty can destroy civil and political rights. How
would Hobbes respond to this argument?
