This is the brief essay which I wrote for the first version of this course thirty-six years ago. In the Keynote the introductory slides illustrate these points. When teaching the class this spring I will hand out this introduction during the preceding class and invite students to read it in preparation for viewing the slide show.

1. Justice & Power
session v
Hobbes
Little more than a century separates Machiavelli and our next philosopher, Thomas Hobbes. The
epicenter of Western Civilization has moved westward from Greece to Italy, and now to England.
Two major phenomena which were only beginning during the final years of Machiavelli’s life are of
prime significance for Hobbes and all the thinkers who follow: the Reformation and the Scientific
Revolution.
Both of these complex movements stemmed from the breakup of medieval order. Both took shape
in the intellectual climate of discovery which the printing press• and the voyages to the New World
fostered. Both were bitterly resisted as intolerable challenges to the status quo. Both ushered in the
conditions which we take for granted in America: no one “owns” the truth; ultimately, the individual
is responsible for his own beliefs. The awesome power represented by knowledge is not a state
monopoly administered by the state religion. Hobbes became an enthusiastic student of “the new
learning.” He discussed his views with such luminaries as Francis Bacon• and Galileo. His efforts to
develop theories of human behavior which didn’t require a theological foundation and his willingness
to engage in academic disputes earned him the epithet “father of atheists.”
In an influential twentieth century study, The Structure of Scientific Revolution, Thomas S. Kuhn•
describes what he calls “dominant paradigms.” Every period operates with a characteristic way of
perceiving reality, according to Kuhn. This “dominant paradigm” is embodied in an unquestioned,
tacit understanding widely shared and transmitted, not by overt “teaching” but by the type of models
which people use to conceptualize everyday tasks. Hobbes’ age was the time when a traditional,
organic paradigm was being replaced by a largely mechanical one as being the more useful image to
have of the universe. Perhaps man is not the “political animal” of Aristotle. Perhaps he is a robot
capable of a wholly mechanical explanation, if only we give the scientist enough data.
Hobbes lived during the final years of the Wars of Religion. Like all the men we will study, his
interest was not narrowly focused on politics. Although most widely recognized today as a defender
of absolutism, he is ironically the first writer to argue “scientifically” that all men are equal. The
violence of his age should give us empathy for his stress on the primacy of order in society. A fitting
tribute to his significance is given by William Ebenstein: “The Leviathan is not an apology for the
Stuart monarchy, nor a grammar of despotic government, but the first general theory of politics in the
English language.” (Great Political Thinkers, p. 358).
Hobbes use of language is reminiscent of Shakespeare’s. For both you must read carefully and be
aware that meanings of some words have changed since the seventeenth century. Try to savor the
irony and force which Hobbes achieves when he practices economy and careful choice of words. As
you compare his conclusions with those of the three we have already studied, consider also how he
has arrived at these views. How does he argue for them? Does he make his case?