Hobbes in Wikipedia, Sanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
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Hobbes' major political writings:
De Cive (On the Citizen) - 1642 (written in Latin). A precursor to what Hobbes would write in Leviathan. Hobbes saw it as the first work of modern political science. He was out to create a framework of politics based on scientific thinking, as Galileo and Descartes had done in other fields. He was yet another opponent of Aristotle's philosophy, which he described as "absurd," "repugnant," and "ignorant" in Leviathan.
Leviathan - 1651 (written in English) - Full name: Leviathan, or The Matter, Forme and Power of a Common Wealth Ecclesiastical and Civil
Hobbes was born into modest means, but his family managed to send him to Oxford at age 14 for a college education. Upon graduation, Hobbes became a tutor in an aristocratic family. He also traveled to the continent where he met Galileo and Descartes. His great work of political philosophy, Leviathan, was the first realistic book on politics since Machiavelli's The Prince (1515). Hobbes applied a more scientific approach to his work than Machiavelli had done with his references to historical events.
Leviathan, which argued for the power of an "absolute sovereign," upset just about everyone, even kings who were concerned the loose use of the word "sovereign" meant any absolute power, not that of just Machiavelli's Prince. Parliamentarians also disliked the book.
Hobbes was accused of atheism for his materialist view of the world, but Hobbes denied he was an atheist. Hobbes claimed that God was material. Hobbes managed to escape the condemnation of his critics and lived to the age of 91.
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Hobbes was a materialist. Humans act on "attraction" and "repulsion" according to their desires. For Hobbes, all human beings are bodies whose "limbs" displayed a person's passions. Reason's job is to judge what was pleasurable and painful to the limbs. This lets Hobbes establish his theory as a sort of political physics. He disputed Descartes' belief in a non-corporeal mind (what philosopher Gilbert Ryle had called "The Ghost in the Machine"), and expanded on Descartes' view of the human body as a machine, holding that since the mind was material, it was subject to physical laws and could be studied as a science.
Reason for Hobbes is not innate, nor does it come solely from experience. Reason is the product of industry. First we name things and then apply a good and orderly method to them. We do this not just to understand the world, but to shape it to our uses. Politics for Hobbes is very much a science.
Hobbes denies Aristotle's teleological view of social behavior in which people form groups to achieve some goal for a greater good (with an end in sight). Hobbes says the opposite, people form societies to prevent a bad, namely death. Politics is not fundamentally an aim in advancement, but a means to prevent catastrophes, such as wars.
Hobbes begins a theory of political philosophy called the social contract (but that name isn't used until the next century). It posits people in a theoretical "state of nature" before governments existed. For Hobbes, man's basic nature is one of self-interest. Because of this, life in the state of nature would be "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short" because people would be in a state of perpetual war with each other for their own survival.
Hobbes blamed the civic republicans of his day for the civil conflicts of his era. He said they had followed Aristotle's wrongheaded view that man was a "political animal" who could rule directly by making their own laws. (Aristotle argued for democratic government)
Good politics for Hobbes was not the collective will of the people, but that will as filtered through a collectively agreed upon sovereign, an abstraction of each man's individual will. The people create the Leviathan, a state run by an "artificial man." This artificial representative is sovereign. The sovereign, it is not a person but an office whose primary responsibility is to keep the peace. Each of our individual wills are modified by the sovereign for the protection of the collective body from our individual wills.
For Hobbes, political activity is not something that comes to us through "nature," but is rather something created by us to protect us from our natures. Hobbes sees this creative ability as art, just as he sees scientific solutions to problems of the physical world as art.
Hobbes is concerned with what constitutes legitimate authority. He remains uncommitted as to what form the sovereign may take (a king, an assembly). But instead of the Divine Right of Kings, the sovereign rules by consent of the people. Once consented to, the sovereign has absolute authority.
The roles of the legitimate sovereign are...
1) to protect private property
2) to handle international affairs (including war)
3) to deal with domestic law and order
4) to censor dangerous materials (Hobbes especially called for censoring Puritans
and universities that taught Aristotle).
Hobbes' theory upset royal authorities for its denial of their divine right to rule. He also upset the civil republicans for denying they could participate directly in government.
Later in the 17th century, John Locke would famously take up the "social contract" paradigm and temper Hobbes' claims that man was only (selfishly) self-interested.
Perhaps Hobbes' most important ethical view is that the only "bad" is to break an agreement. Therefore, there is no good and evil outside of society.
Some of Hobbes' political ideas are:
That justice be administered to all classes of people equally.
A man cannot accuse (testify against) himself, nor can a spouse or parent accuse a loved one.
That the poor be helped by state and not just private charity.
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