Thomas Hobbes (April 5, 1588 - December 4, 1679) was a 
noted English political philosopher, most famous for his book 
Leviathan (1651).

Hobbes also wrote numerous other books on political philosophy 
and other matters, providing an account of human nature as 
self-interested co-operation. He was a contemporary of Descartes 
and wrote one of the replies to Descartes' Meditations.

Early life and education

Hobbes was born in Malmesbury, Wiltshire, England on April 5, 1588. 
His father, the vicar of Charlton and Westport, was forced to leave 
the town, abandoning his three children to the care of an older 
brother Francis. Hobbes was educated at Westport church from the 
age of four, passed to the Malmesbury school and then to a private 
school kept by a young man named Robert Latimer, a graduate from 
Oxford University. Hobbes was a good pupil and around 1603 he was 
sent to Oxford and entered at Magdalen Hall. The principal of 
Magdalen was the aggressive Puritan John Wilkinson and he had 
some influence on Hobbes.

At university Hobbes appears to have followed his own curriculum; he 
was "little attracted by the scholastic learning". He did not 
complete his degree until 1608 but he was recommended by Wilkinson 
as tutor to William, the son of William Cavendish, Baron of Hardwick 
(and later Earl of Devonshire), and began a lifelong connection with 
that family.

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. Hobbes believed that Thucydides' account 
of the Peloponnesian War showed that democratic government could 
not survive war or provide stability and was thus undesirable.

Although he associated with literary figures like Ben Jonson and 
thinkers such as Francis Bacon he did not extend his efforts into 
philosophy until after 1629. His employer Cavendish, then the Earl 
of Devonshire, died of the plague in June 1628. The widowed countess 
dismissed Hobbes but he soon found work, again a tutor, this time to 
the son of Sir Gervase Clifton. This task, chiefly spent in Paris, 
ended in 1631 when he again found work with the Cavendish family, 
tutoring the son of his previous pupil. Over the next seven years 
as well as tutoring he expanded his own knowledge of philosophy, 
awakening in him curiosity over key philosophic debates. He visited 
Florence in 1636 and later was a regular debater in philosophic 
groups in Paris, held together by Marin Mersenne. From 1637 he 
considered himself a philosopher.


In Paris

Hobbes's first area of inquiry was an interest in the physical 
doctrine of motion. Despite his interest in this phenomenon, he 
disdained experimental work as in physics. He went on to conceive 
the system of thought to the elaboration of which his would devote 
his life. His scheme was first to work out, in a separate treatise, 
a systematic doctrine of body, showing how physical phenomena were 
universally explicable in terms of motion, at least as motion or 
mechanical action was then understood. He then singled out Man 
from the realm of Nature. Then, in another treatise, he showed 
what specific bodily motions were involved in the production of 
the peculiar phenomena of sensation, knowledge, affections and 
passions whereby Man came into relation with Man. Finally he 
considered, in his crowning treatise, how Men were moved to enter 
into society, and argued how this must be regulated if Men were not 
to fall back into "brutishness and misery". Thus he proposed to 
unite the separate phenomena of Body, Man and the State.

Hobbes came home, in 1637, to a country riven with discontent which 
disrupted him from the orderly execution of his philosophic plan. 
However, by the time of the Short Parliament he had written not 
only his Human Nature but also De corpore politico (The Elements 
of Law, which was published separately ten years later). This means 
his initial political doctrine was not shaped by the English Civil 
War.

When in November 1640 the Long Parliament succeeded to the Short, 
Hobbes felt he was a marked man by the circulation of his treatise 
and fled to Paris. He did not return for eleven years. In Paris he 
rejoined the coterie about Mersenne, and wrote a critique of the 
Meditations on First Philosophy of Descartes, which was printed 
as third among the sets of "Objections" appended, with "Replies" 
from Descartes in 1641. A different set of remarks on other works 
by Descartes succeeded only in ending all correspondence between 
the two.

He also extended his own works a little, working on the third 
section, De Cive, which was finished in November 1641, although 
it was initially only circulated privately it was well received. 
He then returned to hard work on the first two sections of his 
work and published little except for a short treatise on optics 
(Tractatus opticus) included in the collection of scientific 
tracts published by Mersenne as Cogitata physico-mathematica 
in 1644. He built a good reputation in philosopic circles and in 
1645 was chosen with Descartes, Gilles de Roberval and others, to 
referee the controversy between John Pell and Longomontanus over 
that problem of the squaring the circle.


Civil war in England

The English Civil War broke out in 1642, and when the Royalist 
cause began to decline from the middle of 1644 there was an exodus 
of the king's supporters to Europe. Many came to Paris and were 
known to Hobbes. This revitalised Hobbes's political interests 
and the De Cive was republished and more widely distributed. The 
printing was begun in 1646 by Samuel de Sorbiere through the 
Elzevir press at Amsterdam with a new preface and some new notes 
in reply to objections.

In 1647, Hobbes was engaged as mathematical instructor to the 
young Charles, prince of Wales, who had come over from Jersey 
around July. This engagement lasted until 1648 when Charles 
went to Holland.

The company of the exiled royalists led Hobbes to produce an 
English book to set forth his theory of civil government in 
relation to the political crisis resulting from the war. It 
was based on an unpublished treatise of 1640. The State, it now 
seemed to Hobbes, might be regarded as a great artificial man or 
monster (Leviathan), composed of men, with a life that might be 
traced from its generation under pressure of human needs to its 
dissolution through civil strife proceeding from human passions. 
The work was closed with a general "Review and Conclusion," in 
direct response to the war which raised the question of the 
subject's right to change allegiance when a former sovereign's 
power to protect was irrecoverably gone. Also he took advantage 
of the Commonwealth to indulge in rationalistic criticism of 
religious doctrines. The first public edition was titled Elementa 
philosophica de cive.

During the years of the composition of Leviathan he remained in 
or near Paris. In 1647 Hobbes was overtaken by a serious illness 
which disabled him for six months. On recovering from this near 
fatal disorder, he resumed his literary task, and carried it 
steadily forward to completion by the year 1650, having also 
translated his prior Latin work into English. In 1650, to prepare 
the way for his magnum opus, he allowed the publication of his 
earliest treatise, divided into two separate small volumes 
(Human Nature, or the Fundamental Elements of Policy, and De 
Corpore Politico, or the Elements of Law, Moral and Politic). 
In 1651 he published his translation of the De Cive under the 
title of Philosophical Rudiments concerning Government and 
Society. Meanwhile the printing of the greater work was proceeding, 
and finally it appeared about the middle of 1651, under the title 
of Leviathan, or the Matter, Form and Power of a Commonwealth, 
Ecclesiastical and Civil, with a famous frontpiece in which, from 
behind hills overlooking a landscape, there towered the body 
(above the waist) of a crowned giant, made up of tiny figures of 
human beings and bearing sword and crozier in the two hands.

The work had immediate impact. Soon, Hobbes was more lauded and 
decried than any other thinker of his time. However, the first 
effect of its publication was to sever his link with the exiled 
royalists, forcing him to appeal to the revolutionary English 
government for protection. The exiles may very well have killed 
him; the secularist spirit of his book greatly angered both 
Anglicans and French Catholics. Hobbes fled back home, arriving 
in London in the winter of 1651. Following his submission to the 
council of state he was allowed to subside into private life in 
Fetter Lane.


Leviathan

In Leviathan, Hobbes set out his doctrine of modern natural right 
as the foundation of societies and legitimate governments. In the 
natural condition of mankind, while some men may be stronger or 
more intelligent than others, none are so strong and smart as to 
be beyond a fear of violent death. When threatened with death, man 
in his natural state cannot help but defend himself in any way 
possible. Self-defense against violent death is Hobbes' highest 
human necessity, and rights are borne of necessity. In the state 
of nature, then, each of us has a right to everything in the world. 
Due to the scarcity of things in the world, there is a constant, 
and rights-based, "war of all against all" (bellum omnium contra 
omnes). Life in the state of nature is "solitary, poor, nasty, 
brutish, and short" (xiii).

But war isn't in man's best interest. He has a self-interested and 
materialistic desire to end war — "the passions that incline men 
to peace are fear of death, desire of such things as are necessary 
to commodious living, and a hope by their industry to obtain them" 
(xiii, 14). He forms peaceful societies by entering into a social 
contract. According to Hobbes, society is a population beneath an 
authority, to whom all individuals in that society surrender just 
enough of their natural right for the authority to be able to ensure 
internal peace and a common defense. This sovereign, whether monarch, 
aristocracy or democracy (though Hobbes prefers monarchy), should be 
a Leviathan, an absolute authority. Law, for Hobbes, is the 
enforcement of contracts. The political theory of Leviathan varies 
little from that set out in two earlier works, The Elements of Law 
and De Cive (On The Citizen). (A minor aside: Hobbes almost never 
uses the phrase "state of nature" in his works.)

Hobbes' leviathan state is infinitely authoritative in matters 
pertaining to aggression, one man waging war on another, or any 
matters pertaining to the cohesiveness of the state. It can say 
nothing about what any man does otherwise – so long as one man 
does no harm to any other, the sovereign should keep its hands 
off him (however, since there is no power above the sovereign, 
there is nothing to prevent the sovereign breaking this rule). 
In a word, Hobbes' political doctrine is "do no harm." His 
negative version of the Golden Rule, in chapter xv, 35, reads: 
"Do not that to another, which thou wouldst not have done to 
thyself." (Compare with the Christian golden rule, which encourages 
actively doing unto others: for Hobbes, that is a recipe for social 
chaos.) Hobbes is the founder of political liberalism (liberalism 
understood in a specific way - see Thomas Hobbes' talk page).

Leviathan was written during the English Civil war; much of the book 
is occupied with demonstrating the necessity of a strong central 
authority to avoid the evil of discord and civil war. In particular, 
the doctrine of separation of powers is rejected: the sovereign must 
control civil, military, judicial and ecclesiastical powers.

In Leviathan, Hobbes explicitly states that the sovereign has 
authority to assert power over matters of faith and doctrine, and 
that not to do so is a recipe for discord. Hobbes presents his own 
religious theory, but states that he would defer to the will of the 
sovereign (when that was re-established: again, Leviathan was written 
during the Civil War) as to whether his theory was acceptable. Tuck 
argues that it further marks Hobbes as a supporter of the religious 
policy of the post-Civil War English republic, Independency.

The word "Hobbesian" is sometimes used in modern English to refer 
to a situation in which there is unrestrained, selfish, and 
uncivilised competition. This usage, now well-established, is 
unfortunate for two reasons: first, the Leviathan describes such 
a situation, but only in order to criticise it; second, Hobbes 
himself was timid and bookish in person.


Controversies


With Bramhall

Hobbes now turned to complete the fundamental treatise of his 
philosophical system. He worked so steadily that De Corpore was 
first printed in 1654. Also 1654 a small treatise, Of Liberty 
and Necessity was published by Bishop John Bramhall addressed at 
Hobbes. Bramhall, a strong Arminian, had met and debated with 
Hobbes and afterwards wrote down his views and sent them 
privately to be answered in this form by Hobbes. Hobbes duly 
replied, but not for publication. But a French acquaintance took 
a copy of the reply and published it with "an extravagantly 
laudatory epistle". Bramhall countered in 1655, when he printed 
everything that had passed between them (under the title of A 
Defence of the True Liberty of Human Actions from Antecedent 
or Extrinsic Necessity). In 1656 Hobbes was ready with his 
Questions concerning Liberty, Necessity and Chance, in which 
he replied "with astonishing force" to the bishop. As perhaps 
the first clear exposition of the psychological doctrine of 
determinism, Hobbes's own two pieces were important in the 
history of the free-will controversy. The bishop returned to 
the charge in 1658 with Castigations of Mr Hobbes's 
Animadversions, and also included a bulky appendix entitled 
The Catching of Leviathan the Great Whale. Hobbes never took 
any notice of the Castigations.


With Wallis

Beyond the spat with Bramhall, Hobbes was caught in a series 
of conflicts from the time of publishing his De Corpore in 
1655. In Leviathan he had assailed the system of the original 
universities. In 1654 Seth Ward (1617-1689), the Savilian 
professor of astronomy, replying in his Vindiciae academiarum 
to the assaults by Hobbes and others (especially John Webster) 
on the academic system. Errors in De Corpore, especially in 
the mathematical sections, opened Hobbes to criticism from 
John Wallis, Savilian professor of geometry. Wallis's Elenchus 
geomeiriae Hobbianae, published in 1655 contained an elaborate 
criticism of Hobbes's whole attempt to put the foundations of 
mathematical science in its place within the general body of 
reasoned knowledge - a criticism which exposed the utter 
inadequacy of Hobbes's mathematics. Hobbes's lack of rigour 
meant that he spent himself in vain attempts to solve the 
impossible problems that often waylaid self-sufficient beginners, 
his interest was limited to geometry and he never had any notion 
of the full scope of mathematical science. He was unable to 
work out with any consistency the few original thoughts he had, 
and thus was an easy target. Hobbes took care to remove some 
of the worst mistakes exposed by Wallis, before allowing an 
English translation of the De Corpore to appear in 1656. But 
he still attacked Wallis in a series of Six Lessons to the 
Professors of Mathematics in 1656.

Wallis had an easy task in defending himself against Hobbes's 
criticism, and he seized the opportunity given him by the 
English translation of the De Corpore to re-confront Hobbes 
with his mathematical inconsistencies. Hobbes responded with 
Marks of the Absurd Geometry, Rural Language, Scottish Church 
Politics, and Barbarisms of John Wallis, Professor of Geometry 
and Doctor of Divinity. The thrusts were easily parried by 
Wallis in a reply (Hobbiani puncti dispunctio, 1657). 
Hobbes finally took refuge in silence and there was peace 
for a time.

Hobbes published, in 1658, the final section of his philosophical 
system, completing the scheme he had planned more than twenty 
years before. De Homine consisted for the most part of an 
elaborate theory of vision, whose fundamental importance in 
relation to his political philosophy has often been overlooked. 
The remainder of the treatise dealt cursorily with some of the 
topics more fully treated in the Human Nature and the Leviathan.

Wallis had meanwhile published other works and especially a 
comprehensive treatise on the general principles of calculus 
(Mathesis universatis, 1657). Hobbes, now with time on his 
hands, took it upon himself to re-spark their clash. He 
decided once more to attack the new methods of mathematical 
analysis and by the spring of 1660, he had managed to put 
his criticism and assertions into five dialogues under the 
title Examinatio et emendatio mat hematicae hodiernae quaIls 
explicatur in libris Johannis Wallisii, with a sixth dialogue 
so called, consisting almost entirely of seventy or more 
propositions on the circle and cycloid. Wallis, however, 
would not take the bait. Hobbes then tried another tack having 
solved, as he thought, another ancient problem, the duplication 
of the cube. He had his solution brought out anonymously in 
French, so as to put his critics off the scent. No sooner had 
Wallis publicly refuted the solution than Hobbes claimed the 
credit of it, and went more astray than ever in its defence. 
He republished it (in modified form), with his remarks, at 
the end of a 1661 Latin dialogue which he had written in defence 
of his philosophical doctrine. The Dialogus physicus, sive De 
natura aeris attacked Robert Boyle and other friends of Wallis 
who were forming themselves into a society (incorporated as 
the Royal Society in 1662) for experimental research. Hobbes 
saw this as a direct contravention of the method of physical 
inquiry enjoined in the De Corpore. The careful experiments 
recorded in Boyle's New Experiments touching the Spring of 
the Air (1660), which Hobbes chose to take as the manifesto 
of the new "academicians," seemed to him only to confirm the 
conclusions he had reasoned out years before from speculative 
principles, and he warned them that if they were not content 
to begin where he had left off their work would come to naught. 
To this ill-conceived diatribe Boyle quickly replied with force 
and dignity, but it was from Wallis that true retribution came, 
in the scathing satire Hobbius heauton-timorumenos (1662). 
Hobbes seems to have been "fairly bewildered by the rush and 
whirl of sarcasm" and wisely kept aloof from scientific 
controversy for some years.

However, in response to the more personal attacks Hobbes wrote 
a letter about himself in the third person, Considerations 
upon the Reputation, Loyalty, Manners and Religion of Thomas 
Hobbes. In this biographical piece, he told his own and 
Wallis's "little stories during the time of the late 
rebellion" with such effect that Wallis did not attempt 
a reply.


With geometers

After a time Hobbes began a third period of controversial 
activity, which he dragged out until his ninetieth year. The 
first piece, published in 1666, De principiis et ratiocinatione 
geometrarum, was an attack on geometrical professors. Three 
years later he brought his three mathematical achievements 
together in Quadratura circuli, Cubatio sphaerae, Duplicitio 
cubii, and as soon as they were once more refuted by Wallis, 
reprinted them with an answer to the objections. Wallis, who 
had promised to leave him alone, refuted him again before the 
year was out. The exchange dragged on through numerous other 
papers until 1678.


Later life

As well as his ill-founded and controversial writings on 
mathematics and physics Hobbes continued his philosophical 
works. From the time of the Restoration he acquired a new 
prominence, "Hobbism" became a fashionable creed, which it 
was the duty of "every lover of true morality and religion" 
to denounce. The young king remembered Hobbes and called him 
to the court and bestowed on Hobbes a pension of £100.

The king was important in protecting Hobbes when in 1666 the 
House of Commons introduced a bill against atheism and 
profaneness. On October 17 it was ordered that the committee 
to which the bill was referred "should be empowered to receive 
information touching such books as tend to atheism, blasphemy 
and profaneness... in particular... the book of Mr. Hobbes 
called the Leviathan." ("House of Commons Journal Volume 8 
(http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=26780)." 
British History Online. Accessed on January 14, 2005.) 
Hobbes was terrified at the prospect of being labelled a 
heretic, and proceeded to burn some of his compromising 
papers. At the same time he examined the actual state of the 
law of heresy. The results of his investigation were first 
announced in three short Dialogues added as an Appendix to 
his Latin translation of Leviathan, published at Amsterdam 
in 1668. In this appendix he aimed at showing that, since 
the High Court of Commission had been put down, there remained 
no court of heresy at all to which he was amenable, and that 
nothing could be heresy except opposing the Nicene Creed, as 
he maintained Leviathan did not.

The only consequence that came of the bill was that Hobbes 
could never publish anything on subjects relating to human 
conduct. The 1668 edition of his works was printed in Amsterdam 
because he could not obtain the censor's licence for its 
publication in England. Other writings were not made public 
until after his death including Behemoth: the History of the 
Causes of the Civil Wars of England and of the Counsels and 
Artifices by which they were carried on from the year 1640 to 
the year 1662. For some time Hobbes was not even allowed to 
respond, whatever his enemies tried. Despite this his reputation 
abroad was formidable and foreigners, noble or learned, who 
came to England, never forgot to pay their respects to the old 
man.

His final works were a curious mixture. An autobiography in 
Latin verse in 1672. A translation of four books of the Odyssey 
into "rugged" English rhymes in 1673 led to a complete 
translation of both Iliad and Odyssey in 1675.

In October 1679 a bladder disorder was followed by a paralytic 
stroke, under which he died, in his ninety-second year. He was 
buried in the churchyard of Ault Hucknall in Derbyshire, 
England.


The tiger in Bill Watterson's comic strip Calvin and Hobbes 
was named after Thomas Hobbes; the boy after the Reformation 
theologian John Calvin.