Key Points
ü Thomas Hobbes was born in Westport, England,
on April 5, 1558.
ü He lived during the Revolution
and Civil
War that proclaimed the Republic, and executed Charles V.
o
These
series of events make him think Anarchy, was the worst think that
could happen to society.
o
Only
a STRONG
and AUTHORITARIAN
GOVERNMENT
could ensure social order.
o
Modern Political Philosophy.
ü Great British Philosophers are commonly related (involved) with
political issues, the values, among others.
ü Hobbes's Philosophical Ideas:
o
Hobbes
believed that all phenomena in the universe, without exception, can be
explained in terms of the motions and interactions of material bodies. He did
not believe in the soul, or in the mind as separate from the body, or in any of
the other incorporeal and metaphysical entities in which other writers have
believed. Instead, he saw human beings as essentially machines, with even their
thoughts and emotions operating according to physical laws and chains of cause
and effects, action and reaction.
·
As
machines, human beings pursue their own self-interest relentlessly,
mechanically avoiding pain and pursuing pleasure.
o
He
rejected what we now know as the scientific method because he believed that the
observation of nature itself is too subjective a basis on which to ground
philosophy and science.
o
Hobbes
maintained that the constant back-and-forth meditation between the emotion of
fear and the emotion of hope is the defining principle of all human actions.
Either fear or hope is present at all times in all people.
·
In
a famous passage of Leviathan, Hobbes states that the worst aspect of the state
of nature is the "continual fear and danger of violent death."
o
He
believed that in man's natural state, moral ideas do not exists. Thus, in
speaking of human nature, he define good simply as that which people desire and
evil as that which they avoid, at least in the state of nature.
o
Absolute
Monarchy (Best form of Government)
·
Hobbes
promoted that monarchy is the best form of government and the only one that can
guarantee peace. In some of his early works, he only says that there must be a
supreme sovereign power of some kind in society, without standing definitely
which sort of sovereign power is best. However, in Leviathan, he unequivocally
argues that absolutist monarchy is the only right form of government.
ü Finally he died on December 4, 1679.
ü Some famous quotes of Hobbes are:
o
"The
condition of man... is a condition of war of everyone against everyone."
o
"It
is no wisdom, but authority that makes a law."
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