Hobbes

Modern philosophy

The famous author of Leviathan is one of the most illustrious representatives of English political philosophy. He was one of the first philosophers to take an interest in the notion of the state of nature, and in the pact, the foundation of civil society that would enable us to emerge from it. Nevertheless, it would be simplistic to regard him solely as a political thinker. In reality, his thinking is much broader and also embraces logic, physics, or metaphysics.

Bibliography

Here are the essential books if you want to better understand the thought of this author:

Martinich, A. P. (1992). The Two Gods of Leviathan: Thomas Hobbes on Religion and Politics, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Parkin, Jon, (2007), Taming the Leviathan: The Reception of the Political and Religious Ideas of Thomas Hobbes in England 1640–1700, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Shapin, Steven and Schaffer, Simon (1995). Leviathan and the Air-Pump. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Skinner, Quentin (2008). Hobbes and Republican Liberty, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Strauss, Leo (1936). The Political Philosophy of Hobbes; Its Basis and Its Genesis, Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Biography: life of Hobbes

Youth: travel and Latin

Hobbes was born in 1588 at Westport in England. The son of a vicar, he was a precocious child who had already mastered Latin and Greek by the age of 6. He studied at Oxford University, where he took a particular interest in reading the great Latin authors (Euripides, Thucydides...).

After graduating, he became a tutor to young members of the English nobility. To further their education, he travelled around Europe with them: France, Italy, Germany... These journeys opened his mind and shaped him intellectually.

In 1630, he immersed himself in reading Euclid, and developed a passion for geometry.

During his travels in Paris, he gradually forged links with the learned societies of the time.

His reflections led him to conceive of movement as the universal principle capable of founding physical, psychological, moral and political reality all at once; this physicism is an essential feature of his thought.

In 1640, Hobbes moved to Paris, fleeing the political turmoil that was shaking England, linked to the struggle for influence between the King and Parliament; this exile lasted eleven years.

In Paris

In his first work, the Elements of Law, Natural and Politic, he sides with the King, establishing a necessary connection between power and law on the one hand, and the Sovereign on the other. The print run was still only confidential, but it began to acquire some renown.

In 1641, Hobbes confronted Descartes, who had just published his Meditations on First Philosophy and sought to contradict him, which he would answer in the objections that complete the work.

Hobbes sent him his famous counter-arguments, the Third Objections, via their mutual friend Mersenne, which provoked the fury of the great French thinker; the latter eventually wanted no further contact with Hobbes.

In 1642 he wrote De Cive, in which he focused on the notion of the state of nature. He became the mathematics teacher of the future King Charles II, a prestigious position that led him to perfect his knowledge in this field.

The return of the philosopher

In 1650, his exile came to an end: he finally returned to his native England. His main work, Leviathan, was published; in it, he no longer based political power on tradition or religion, but on a pact concluded among the members of the social body to emerge from the state of nature.

These ideas caused a scandal, and he faced attacks from Oxford theologians, physicists, mathematicians, and academics. While he was accused of atheism, he also faced objections from other mathematicians who ridiculed some of his demonstrations.

Five years later, he published the De Corpore, which presented an innovative conception of logic, considered as a kind of calculus, founding an equally innovative primary philosophy and physics.

Finally, he published the De Homine in 1658, in which mathematics continued to occupy a prominent place, and which attracted new criticism, particularly regarding his considerations on squaring the circle.

The disgrace

When Charles II came to power, he was naturally received at Court, as a long-standing supporter of the monarchy, and former tutor to the King. But the many enemies he faced eventually won the day: he had to withdraw from public life. He only avoided a trial on condition that he promised the King that he would not write any more political or religious works.

He left London to live with friends, and composed minor works, such as an autobiography in Latin.

In 1679, he was paralysed and breathed his last at Hardwick, in Derbyshire.

Main works

Elements of Law, Natural and Politic
Philosophicall Rudiments concerning Government and Society
Human Nature
Leviathan
De Corpore
De Homine