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His Youth
Thomas Hobbes was born as the
second son of the vicar of Westport and Charlton (Wiltshire) England in
April of 1588--reportedly prematurely because of the stress created by
the news of the approaching Spanish Armada. Hobbes later considered
it a sign that he was born under: the burden of fear and the consequent
passion for peace.
His father abandoned the
family in Thomas' early youth and he was raised by a well-to-do uncle.
Thomas began his schooling early in his life and entered Magdalen College,
Oxford at 15 years of age. However he showed little interest in the
more philosophical elements of his studies--though maps and charts held
his attention.
Upon his graduation at age
19 he became connected to the Cavendish family, serving as private tutor
to William Cavendish (later 2nd Earl of Devonshire)--a man not much younger
than himself. A tour with William to the European continent opened
up his philosophical horizons and he began to study the classics in earnest
thereafter. He began to develop a growing interest in the movement
of history--in the fates of nations and empires. In 1629 he published
a translation of Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian War--motivated
in part by his desire to send a warning to England about the dangers of
democracy gone amiss, as happened in ancient Athens.
He Embraces Mathematics and
Science
His friend William died (1628),
but a couple of years later he was called back from Paris into service
to the Cavendish family as tutor to his friend's son and namesake, William.
His took his young charge to the continent in 1634--and along the way opened
his own intellectual vista to include the study of mathematics and science.
He took an interest in Euclid's
Elements--in the clarity of the
logic presented there, and became determined to come under a similar intellectual
self-discipline.
He was also deeply influenced
by the new assumptions arising within European scientific circles that
the cause of all things was not some inherent urge of things to a particular
self-realization or self-fulfilment (as per Aristotle), but was instead
a transcending system of various principles of motion (as per the newly
rising science of physics or mechanics). By the time of his third
journey to the continent in 1636, when he met Galileo, he had become a
devotee to the new science of mechanics.
He Begins to Formulate a Grand
Theory of Behavior
From this new passion Hobbes
undertook to write three works--all related to the application of the principles
of mechanics or motion to all life.
De corpore (published eventually
in 1655) focused on the behavior of physical life--how it was guided or
determined by these principles of motion. De homine (published eventually
in 1658) focused on the actions or behavior of the human body and mind--and
how this too was determined by these principles. And De cive
(appearing in 1642) applied these principles to man's organized social
life.
His Thoughts Turn to Political
Matters
But his return from the continent
in 1636 was disturbed by the growing disharmony in England over the question
of the royal prerogative. Royalist and anti-royalist factions were
forming, and Hobbes, ever the adversary of dissent, in 1640 put together
a manuscript, The Elements of Law, Natural and Political, designed
to demonstrate that the royal prerogative belonged by nature to the monarchy.
But this pleased neither
faction in the dispute. Hobbes conceived of the royal prerogative
as an evolved principle of governance arising from some ancient contractual
transfer of power of popular or democratic society when democracy showed
itself unable to govern properly. The royalists were not pleased
at Hobbes' building a logical explanation of royal power on some kind of
social contract theory arising from the consent of the people--for they
claimed that royal power came solely and indisputedly from God. But
the anti-Royalists were unhappy with his work because it built a strong
argument for absolute royal power.
Hobbes, ever nervous about
the movement of political events, decided that life would be safer for
him in Paris--where he spent the next 11 years. He and Descartes
parted ways over Hobbes' critique of Descartes Meditations.
Hobbes own works began to draw interest on the continent, especially De
cive--which accorded monarchy absolute rights over the peace of the
land, including even over issues of a religious nature.
When in 1646 the young expatriate
English king, Charles II, fled to Paris, Hobbes was invited to become his
instructor in mathematics. But deep involvement with other English
expatriates turned Hobbes thoughts more and more to political matters.
Leviathan
De cive soon underwent
a second edition, and The Elements of Law finally went into published
form in the next few years. But even more important was his
publication in 1651 of his masterwork,
Leviathan: or the Matter,
Form, and Power of a Commonwealth, Ecclesiastical and Civil.
But the work did not have
the intended effect Hobbes supposed it would. By this time the monarchy
in England was ended and the country lived under the rule of Cromwell and
his Parliamentary army. Leviathan was intended to make a powerful
case for a restored monarchy--except that the logic or justification employed
was again a utilitarian one: people should submit to royal authority
because it has the unique power to protect the people from civil disorder.
Again his work did not give any support whatsoever to the royalist argument
concerning the divine rights of kings.
Worse, the work took on the
arguments of both the Presbyterian and Papal factions which used scripture
to undergird their claims. This further antagonized the Royalists,
who were mostly fiercely Catholic and detested his attacks on their religious
position (his similar attack on the Presbyterian position notwithstanding!)
Personal Controversy in England
Now Hobbes felt unsafe in Paris
and returned to England--and submitted himself to the Cromwellian political
system. He settled in London and joined some of the vibrant intellectual
circles there. But unfortunately an old argument concerning human
free will was brought back to life by one of Hobbes' admirers who decided
to publish private correspondence between Hobbes and Bramhall, Bishop of
Londonderry. Thus did Of Liberty and Necessity appear in print.
This produced Bramhall's rebuttal,
A Defence of True Liberty, which
in turn led to Hobbes' answer in
The Questions Concerning Liberty, Necessity
and Chance.
Also, his attack in Leviathan
on the academic credentials at Oxford brought a sharp rebuttal from several
mathematics professors there, which then Hobbes answered in an appendix
to a newly published English translation of De corpore. This
debate degenerated into an attack by Hobbes on Robert Boyle and the group
then in the process of forming the Royal Society--an institution dedicated
to promoting empirical research, a stepping away from the deductive methods
employed by Hobbes and the continental Rationalists. This debate
got personal and public--in a number of publications that carried the argument
back and forth, especially with his nemesis John Wallis. Wallis at
one point even accused Hobbes of disloyalty to the king in his earlier
wanderings back and forth between England and the continent (by this time
the monarchy was restored in England and Charles now reigned at Charles
II), so bitter did the debate become.
But the Charles was still
well-disposed to his former tutor--though many in the royalist ranks were
not, especially over Hobbes' "atheism" demonstrated in his attacks on the
church in his Leviathan. By the mid 1660s both the Great Fire
of London and outbreaks of the plague in England stirred the superstitions
of the day--and led the government to be vigilant in its ferreting out
heresies that might be responsible for bringing the wrath of God on English
society. Hobbes thus came under scrutiny for heresy.
Controversy to His Dying Days
Though the heresy furor eventually
abated, Hobbes was barred from printing any more of his writing on social
issues. Though Hobbes had promised his protector Charles II to not
stir up further controversy, the publication in 1679 of Behemoth: The
History of the Causes of the Civil Wars of England, (probably written
about 1668) put Hobbes in jeopardy.
His death that same year
(1679--at age 90) was probably all that spared him from the wrath of the
royalist party.
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Hobbes:
An Overview
His
Life and Works
His
Major Ideas
His
Legacy
Hobbes's Writings
Hobbes'
major works or writings:
Miles
H. Hodges
