THOMAS HOBBES Born Died 1679

EARLY INTERESTS  Thomas Hobbes was fascinated by the idea of movement This started as physical movement though Hobbes was by no means a Physicist. Eventually his studies took him past material movement to the point of a questioning the motivations of human beings. He saw that like in the scientific world humans function on initial forces and incentives.

 Hobbes took those ideas of human motivation and applied them to a political and social setting.  England at the time he lived was going through it’s civil war.  Hobbes’ Philosophical attitude is reflected in the discord that ensued from those dark times of weak or nonexistent leadership. POLITICAL WORKS

THE LEVIATHAN  This is Hobbes’ crowning work and was mostly political and religious.  Hobbes supported having a central power and government that ruled the masses. Again possibly this is due to the chaos that he saw during civil war England.  Not just any Government either an absolute and extremely central all controlling government

WHY? Central Government Lose Government

BASICALLY  Hobbes did not trust people to do the right thing without the Government watching to make sure they did it right.  He was a strong supporter of Absolutism

BUT!  Though Hobbes totally supported this absolute power behind Government he reserved certain rights for the people to defend themselves. Such times were when the government put either the person, the person’s family or their honor at stake. Though he still absolutely abhorred revolution