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Thomas Hobbes was born in London in

1588. He received his college education
at Oxford University in England, where
he studied classics. Hobbes traveled to
other European countries several times
to meet with scientists and to study
different forms of government. During
his time outside of England, Hobbes
became interested in why people
allowed themselves to be ruled and
what would be the best form of
government for England. In 1651,
Hobbes wrote his most famous work,
entitled Leviathan. In it, he argued that
people were naturally wicked and could
not be trusted to govern. Therefore,
Hobbes believed that an absolute
monarchy - a government that gave all
power to a king or queen - was best.

      Hobbes believed that humans were

basically selfish creatures who would do
anything to better their position. Left to
themselves, he thought, people would
act on their evil impulses. According to
Hobbes, people therefore should not be
trusted to make decisions on their own.
In addition, Hobbes felt that nations,
like people, were selfishly motivated. To
Hobbes, each country was in a constant
battle for power and wealth. To prove
his point, Hobbes wrote, "If men are
naturally in a state of war, why do they
always carry arms and why do they
have keys to lock their doors?"

      Governments were created,

according to Hobbes, to protect people
from their own selfishness and evil. The
best government was one that had the
great power of a leviathan, or sea
monster. Hobbes believed in the rule of
a king because he felt a country needed
an authority figure to provide direction
and leadership. Because the people were
only interested in promoting their own
self-interests, Hobbes believed
democracy - allowing citizens to vote for
government leaders - would never work.
Hobbes wrote, "All mankind [is in] a
perpetual and restless desire for
power... that [stops] only in death."
Consequently, giving power to the
individual would create a dangerous
situation that would start a "war of
every man against every man" and make
life "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and
short."

      Despite his distrust of democracy,

Hobbes believed that a diverse group of
representatives presenting the problems
of the common person would, hopefully,
prevent a king from being cruel and
unfair. During Hobbes' lifetime, business
began to have a big influence on
government. Those who could
contribute money to the government
were given great status, and business
interests were very powerful. In order
to offset the growing power of business,
Hobbes believed that an individual could
be heard in government by authorizing a
representative to speak on their behalf.
In fact, Hobbes came up with the phrase
"voice of the people," which meant that
one person could be chosen to represent
a group with similar views. However,
this "voice" was merely heard and not
necessarily listened to - final decisions
lay with the king.
http://www.notablebiographies.com/He-Ho/Hobbes-Thomas.html

The English philosopher and political theorist Thomas

Hobbes was one of the central figures of political thought
behind the British Empire. His major

Thomas Hobbes.
Reproduced by permission of
Archive Photos, Inc.
work, "Leviathan," published in 1651, expressed his idea
that basic human motives are selfish.

Childhood

Born prematurely on April 5, 1588, when his mother heard

of the coming invasion of the Spanish Armada (a fleet of
Spanish warships), Thomas Hobbes later reported that
"my mother gave birth to twins: myself and fear." His
father, also named Thomas Hobbes, was the vicar (a
clergyman in charge of a church) of Westport near
Malmesbury in Gloucestershire, England. After being
involved in a fight with another clergyman outside his own
church, the elder Thomas Hobbes was forced to flee to
London, England, leaving his wife, two boys and a girl
behind.

Thomas was then raised and educated by an uncle and

studied at the local schools. By the age of six he was
studying Latin and Greek. Also at this time, Hobbes
became absorbed in the classic literature of ancient
Greece. From 1603 to 1608 he studied at Magdalen
College, Oxford, where he was bored by the philosophy of
Aristotelianism (studying the works of Aristotle, a fourth-
century B.C.E. Greek philosopher).

Scholarly work

The twenty-year-old future philosopher became a tutor to

the Cavendish family, a well-known English family. This
association provided him with a private library, foreign
travel, and introductions to influential people. Hobbes
learned to speak Italian and German and soon decided to
devote his life to scholarly pursuits.

Hobbes, however, was slow in developing his thought—his

first work, a translation of Greek historian Thucydides's
(died c. 401 B.C.E. ) History of the Peloponnesian Wars,
did not appear until 1629. Thucydides held that knowledge
of the past was useful for determining correct action, and
Hobbes said that he offered the translation during a period
of civil unrest as a reminder that the ancients believed
democracy (rule by the people) to be the least effective
form of government.

In Hobbes's own estimation the most important

intellectual event of his life occurred when he was forty.
While waiting for a friend he wandered into a library and
came across a copy of Euclid's (third century B.C.E. )
geometry. His interest in mathematics is reflected in his
second work, A Short Treatise on First Principles, which
presents a mechanical interpretation of sensation, as well
as in his brief stint as mathematics tutor to Charles II
(1630–1685).

For the rest of his long life Hobbes travelled and published
many works. In France he met mathematicians René
Descartes (1596–1650) and the Pierre Gassendi (1592–
1655). In 1640 he wrote one of the sets of arguments to
Descartes's Meditations.

Although born into the Elizabethan Age (c. 1550–1600; a

time of great change in England), Hobbes outlived all of
the major seventeenth-century thinkers. He became a sort
of English icon and continued writing, offering new
translations of Homer (an eighth-century B.C.E. Greek
poet) in his eighties because he had "nothing else to do."
When he was past ninety, he became involved in
controversies with the Royal Society, an organization of
scientists. He invited friends to suggest appropriate
epitaphs (an inscription on a tombstone) and favored one
that read "this is the true philosopher's stone." He died on
December 4, 1679, at the age of ninety-one.
His philosophy

The questions Hobbes posed to the world in the

seventeenth century are still relevant today, and Hobbes
still maintains a strong influence in the world of
philosophy. He challenged the relationship between
science and religion, and the natural limitations of
political power.

The diverse intellectual paths of the seventeenth century,

which are generically called modern classical philosophy,
began by rejecting authorities of the past—especially
Aristotle and his peers. Descartes, who founded the
rationalist tradition, and Sir Francis Bacon (1561–1626),
who is considered the originator of modern empiricism
(political theory regarding the British Empire), both
sought new methods for achieving scientific knowledge
and a clear conception of reality.

Hobbes was fascinated by the problem of sense

perception, and he extended Galileo's (1564–1642)
mechanical physics into an explanation of human
cognition (process of learning). He believed the origin of
all thought is sensation, which consists of mental images
produced by the pressure of motion of external objects.
Thus Hobbes anticipated later thought by explaining
differences between the external object and the internal
image. These sense images are extended by the power of
memory and imagination. Understanding and reason,
which distinguish men from other animals, are a product
of our ability to use speech.

Political thought

Hobbes explains the connection between nature, man, and

society through the law of inertia ("bodies at rest tend to
stay at rest; bodies in motion tend to stay in motion").
Thus man's desire to do what he wants is checked only by
an equal and opposite need for security. Society "is but an
artificial man" invented by man, so to understand politics
one should merely consider himself as part of nature.

Such a reading is cold comfort as life before society is

characterized by Hobbes, in a famous quotation, as
"solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short." The equality of
human desire is matched by an economy of natural
satisfactions. Men are addicted to power because gaining
power is the only guarantee of living well. Such men live in
a state of constant war, driven by competition and desire
for the same goods. The important result of this view is
man's natural right to seek self-preservation (protection of
one's self) by any means. In this state of nature there is no
value above self-interest because the absence of common
power results in the absence of law and justice. But there
is a second law of nature that men may surrender their
individual will to the state. This "social contract" binds the
individual to treat others as he expects to be treated by
them.

In Hobbes's view the sovereign power of a commonwealth

(England's power over its colonies) is absolute and not
subject to the laws of its citizens. Obedience will remain as
long as the sovereign (England) fulfills the social contract
by protecting the rights of the individual. According to
these laws Hobbes believed that rebellion is, by definition,
unjust. However, should a revolution prove victorious, a
new absolute sovereignty would rise up to take the place of
the old one.

For More Information

Condren, Conal. Thomas Hobbes. New York: Twayne

Publishers, 2000.

Green, Arnold W. Hobbes and Human Nature. New

Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 1993.

Martinich, Aloysius. Hobbes: A Biography. New York:

Cambridge University Press, 1999.

Taylor, A. E. Thomas Hobbes. Port Washington, NY:

Kennikat Press, 1970
http://www.egs.edu/library/thomas-hobbes/biography/

Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679)

Thomas Hobbes was born at Westport, adjoining Malmesbury in Wiltshire, on
April 5, 1588. His father was the vicar of a parish. His uncle, who was a
tradesman and alderman of Malmesbury, provided for Hobbes' education.
When he was 14 years old he went to Magdalen Hall in Oxford to study,
already an excellent student of Latin and Greek. He left Oxford in 1608, and
became the private tutor for the eldest son of Lord Cavendish of Hardwick
(later known as the Earl of Devonshire). He traveled with his pupil in 1610 to
France, Italy, and Germany. He then went to London to continue his studies,
where he met other leading scholars like Francis Bacon, Herbert of Cherbury,
and Ben Johnson.
Hobbes maintained his connection to the Cavendish family, however, in 1628
the Cavendish son died, and Hobbes had to find another pupil. In 1629 he left
for the continent again for a two year journey with his new student. When he
returned in 1631 he began to tutor the younger Cavendish son. It was around
this time that Hobbes' philosophy began to take form. His manuscript Short
Tract on First Principles was most likely written in 1630. In this piece he uses
the geometrical form, inspired by Euclid, to shape his argument.
From 1634 to 1637 Hobbes returned to the continent with the young Earl of
Devonshire. In Paris he spent time with Mersenne and the scientific
community that included Descartes and Gassendi. In Florence, he conversed
with Galileo. When he returned to England he wrote Elements of law Natural
and Politic, which outlined his new theory. The first thirteen chapters of this
work was published in 1650 under the title Human Nature, and the rest of the
work as a separate volume entitled De Corpore Politico. In 1640 he went to
France to escape the civil war brewing in England. He would stay in France
for the next eleven years, taking an appointment to teach mathematics to
Charles, Prince of Wales, who came to Paris in 1646.
At this time Hobbes friend Mersenne was encouraging scholars to respond to
Descates' forthcoming treatise Meditationes de prima philosophia. In 1641
Hobbes sent his critique to Descartes in Holland, and they were published in
Objectiones with the publication of the treatise. The two men continued their
discourse, exchanging letters on the Dioptrique, which had been published in
1637. Hobbes disagreed with Descartes' theory that the mind, independent
from material reality, was the primal certainty. Hobbes instead used motion as
the basis for his philosophy of nature, mind and society. His correspondence
with Descartes led to a paper on his views on physics and a Tractatus Opticus
to works published by Mersenne.
By 1640 Hobbes had plans for his future philosophical work, expecting it to
take shape in the form of three treatises. He planned to begin with matter, or
body, then look at human nature, and then society. However, inspired by the
political unrest in his home country, he began instead with the third treatise on
society. De Cive was published in Paris in 1642. When the Commonwealth
had reestablished a stable government in England, Hobbes published the
same text in English under the title Philosophical Rudiments concerning
Government and Society. The book was highly controversial, and criticized by
both sides of the English civil war. He supported the king over parliament, but
also denied the king his divine right. Oxford University dismissed faculty under
the premise of being "Hobbits". Hobbes also ventured controversial views on
God and religion, and the Roman Catholic Church put his books on the Index.
In England ther
In 1651 Hobbes returned to England, fearing that France was no longer a safe
haven for the exiled English court. This same year saw the publication of
Leviathan, Hobbes' most influential work. In the introduction to the book
Hobbes describes the state as an organism, showing how each part of the
state functions similarly to parts of a human body. As the state is created by
human beings, he first sets out to describe human nature. He advises that we
may look into ourselves to see a picture of general humanity. He believes that
all acts are ultimately self-serving, even when they seem benevolent, and that
in a state of nature, prior to any formation of government, humans would
behave completely selfishly. He remarks that all humans are essentially
mentally and physically equal, and because of this, we are naturally prone to
fight each other. He cites three natural reasons that humans fight: competition
over material good, general distrust, and the glory of powerful positions.
Hobbes comes to the conclusion that humanity's natural condition is a state of
perpetual war, constant fear, and lack of morality.
In the Leviathan, Hobbes writes that morality consists of Laws of Nature.
These Laws, arrived at through social contract, are found out by reason and
are aimed to preserve human life. Hobbes comes to his laws of nature
deductively, still using a model of reasoning derived from geometry. From a
set of five general principles, he derives 15 laws. The five general principles
are (1) that human beings pursue only their own self-interest, (2) that all
people are equal (3) the three natural causes of quarrel, (4) the natural
condition of perpetual war, and (5) the motivation for peace. The first three
Laws of Nature he derives from these principles describe the basic foundation
for putting an end to the state of nature. The other twelve laws develop the
first three further, and are more precise about what kind of contracts are
necessary to establish and preserve peace.
Hobbes saw the responsibility of governments to be the protection of people
from their own selfishness, and he thought the best government would have
the power of a sea monster, or leviathan. He saw the king as a necessary
figure of leadership and authority. He felt that democracy would never work
because people are only motivated by self-interest. He saw humanity as being
motivated by a constant desire for power, and to give power to the individual
would result in a war of every one against the other that would make life
"solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short."
After returning to England in 1651, Hobbes had spent a couple of years in
London, before retreating to the home of his former pupil the Earl of
Devonshire. In 1654 Hobbes was surprised by an unauthorized publication of
a tract entitled Of Liberty and Necessity, which he had written in response to
an attack by the bishop Bramhall on Leviathan. Bramhall was enraged by
Hobbes response, and Hobbes was prompted to write a further and more
elaborate defense in The Questions concerning Liberty, Necessity, and
Chance, which was published in 1656. In 1655 Hobbes published De
Corpore, the first part of his philosophical system. This work looks at the
logical, mathematical and physical principles that create the foundation of his
philosophy. The second part of his system, De Homine, was published in
1656.

In 1667 Leviathan was mentioned in a bill passed in the Commons against

blasphemous literature. Although the bill did not pass both houses, Hobbes

was scared into studying the law of heresy, and wrote a short treatise arguing

that there was no court that might judge him. He was forbidden to publish on

the topic of religion. Many of his works were kept from publication, however a

Latin translation of Leviathan was published in Amsterdam in 1668. Around

this time he also wrote Dialogue between a Philosopher and a Student of the

Common Laws of England. Among the titles that remained unpublished during

his lifetime are the tract on Heresy, and Behemoth: the History of the Causes

of the Civil Wars of England. He continued to write, and he wrote his

autobiography, in Latin verse, when he was eighty-four years old. In his final

years he completed Latin translations of the Iliad and the Odyssey, and in

1675 he left London for the last time to live with the Cavendish family in

Derbyshire. Hobbes died at Hardwick on December 4, 1679.