"Hobbes" redirects here. For other people called Hobbes, see Hobbes (disambiguation).
For the Dean of Exeter, see Thomas Hobbes (priest). For those of a similar name, see Thomas Hobbs.
Thomas Hobbes
Portrait by John Michael Wright, c. 1669–70
Born
(1588-04-05)5 April 1588
Westport, Wiltshire, England
Died
4 December 1679(1679-12-04) (aged 91)
Ault Hucknall, Derbyshire, England
Education
Magdalen Hall, Oxford
St John's College, Cambridge (BA)
Notable work
De Cive (1647)
Leviathan (1651)
De Corpore (1655)
Behemoth (1681)
Era
17th-century philosophy
Region
Western philosophy
School
British empiricism
Classical realism
Corpuscularianism[1]
Descriptive egoism
Determinism
English Renaissance[2]
Materialism[3]
Legal positivism
Natural law
Nominalism[3]
Social contract
Main interests
Political philosophy, history, ethics, geometry
Notable ideas
Social contract
State of nature
Bellum omnium contra omnes
Signature
Thomas Hobbes (/hɒbz/HOBZ; 5 April 1588 – 4 December 1679) was an English philosopher. Hobbes is best known for his 1651 book Leviathan, in which he expounds an influential formulation of social contract theory.[4] He is considered to be one of the founders of modern political philosophy.[5][6]
Hobbes was born prematurely due to his mother's fear of the Spanish Armada. His early life, overshadowed by his father's departure following a fight, was taken under the care of his wealthy uncle. Hobbes's academic journey began in Westport, leading him to Oxford University, where he was exposed to classical literature and mathematics. He then graduated from the University of Cambridge in 1608. He became a tutor to the Cavendish family, which connected him to intellectual circles and initiated his extensive travels across Europe. These experiences, including meetings with key figures like Galileo, shaped his intellectual development.
After returning to England from France in 1641, Hobbes witnessed the destruction and brutality of the English Civil War from 1642 to 1651 between Parliamentarians and Royalists, which heavily influenced his advocacy for governance by an absolute sovereign in Leviathan, as the solution to human conflict and societal breakdown. Aside from social contract theory, Leviathan also popularized ideas such as the state of nature ("war of all against all") and laws of nature. His other major works include the trilogy De Cive (1642), De Corpore (1655), and De Homine (1658) as well as the posthumous work Behemoth (1681).
Hobbes contributed to a diverse array of fields, including history, jurisprudence, geometry, optics, theology, classical translations, ethics, as well as philosophy in general, marking him as a polymath. Despite controversies and challenges, including accusations of atheism and contentious debates with contemporaries, Hobbes's work profoundly influenced the understanding of political structure and human nature.
^Kenneth Clatterbaugh, The Causation Debate in Modern Philosophy, 1637–1739, Routledge, 2014, p. 69.
^Orozco-Echeverri, Sergio H. (2012). "On the Origin of Hobbes's Conception of Language: The Literary Culture of English Renaissance Humanism". Revista de Estudios Sociales. 44: 102–112.
^ ab"Thomas Hobbes". Thomas Hobbes (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy). Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University. 2021.
^Lloyd, Sharon A.; Sreedhar, Susanne (2022), "Hobbes's Moral and Political Philosophy", in Zalta, Edward N.; Nodelman, Uri (eds.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2022 ed.), Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University, retrieved 10 March 2023
^Williams, Garrath. "Hobbes, Thomas: Moral and Political Philosophy". Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved 10 March 2023.
^Sheldon, Garrett Ward (2003). The History of Political Theory: Ancient Greece to Modern America. Peter Lang. p. 253. ISBN 978-0-8204-2300-5.
ThomasHobbes (/hɒbz/ HOBZ; 5 April 1588 – 4 December 1679) was an English philosopher. Hobbes is best known for his 1651 book Leviathan, in which he expounds...
done. In Hobbes and the social contract tradition (1988), Jean Hampton indicates that this quote is 'after Bacon' and in a footnote, that 'Hobbes was Bacon's...
described by the 17th century English philosopher ThomasHobbes in Leviathan and his earlier work De Cive. Hobbes argued that natural inequalities between humans...
comic", Calvin and Hobbes has enjoyed broad and enduring popularity, influence, and academic and philosophical interest. Calvin and Hobbes follows the humorous...
derives its authority. ThomasHobbes (1588–1679) included a discussion of natural rights in his moral and political philosophy. Hobbes' conception of natural...
Locke: Like Hobbes, described a social contract theory based on citizens' fundamental rights in the state of nature. He departed from Hobbes in that, based...
Hobbes, Locke, and Confusion's Empire: an Examination of Seventeenth-Century Political Philosophy. Cambridge University Press, 2003. Hobbes, Thomas....
John Locke, generally regarded as the father of modern liberalism. ThomasHobbes attempted to determine the purpose and the justification of governing...
brief". ThomasHobbes' worldview concentrated on social and political order and how humans could coexist without danger or risk of civil war. Hobbes' moral...
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John Adams. Another member of the Hobbes/Harrington generation, Sir Robert Filmer, reached conclusions much like Hobbes', but through Biblical exegesis...
empiricism, the thinkers of which range back as far as Sextus Empiricus, ThomasHobbes, John Locke, George Berkeley, David Hume, and Auguste Comte. The main...
common good. Hobbes has no use for Aristotle's association of nature with human perfection, inverting Aristotle's use of the word "nature". Hobbes posits a...
early modern mechanical philosophy, and especially with the names of ThomasHobbes, René Descartes, Pierre Gassendi, Robert Boyle, Isaac Newton, and John...
response to the political philosophy of Leviathan (1651), in which ThomasHobbes defended absolute monarchy and justified centralized government as necessary...
phrase meaning "the war of all against all", is the description that ThomasHobbes gives to human existence in the state-of-nature thought experiment that...
to encounter every legitimate danger. However, English philosopher ThomasHobbes believed that the Athenians were only taught to think they had personal...
exemplified by philosophers throughout history, like Heraclitus, Diogenes, ThomasHobbes, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Arthur Schopenhauer, and Friedrich Nietzsche...
historical group of scientists who were killed by their own experiments. ThomasHobbes (1588–1679) was an English philosopher, remembered today for his work...
(1968), Charles I, London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson Hobbes, Thomas (1839), The English Works of ThomasHobbes of Malmesbury, London: J. Bohn, p. 220 Hibbert...
is used throughout Hobbes' work as a symbol of the sovereign person. Although the Leviathan is not the only allegory made by Hobbes of the sovereign, which...
his fellow skeptic friends, Hobbes never treated skepticism as a main topic for discussion in his works. Nonetheless, Hobbes was still labeled as a religious...
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