THOMAS HOBBESPRESENTED BY

SABIR PATEL

HOBBES

English philosopher

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.

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.

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]

HIS THOUGHTS

Hobbes’ question

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’

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’

Hobbes’ assumptions:

Without a power able to enforce rules, there is chaos and misery

3 causes of conflictmen fight for gainmen fight for securitymen fight for reputation

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"

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.

Hobbes book “LEVIATHAN”

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.

BOOK’S CONTENTFrontispiecePart I: Of ManPart II: Of Common-wealthTypes of commonwealthSuccessionReligionTaxationPart III: Of a Christian Common-wealthPart IV: Of the Kingdom of Darkness

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.”

The Motions of Man and the State of Nature - ContinuedThis 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.

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?

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