Date of Birth: 05/04/1588
Place of birth: Malmesbury
Citizenship: United Kingdom
Fame came to him as the author of philosophical treatises, but a penchant for philosophy manifested itself when he was well over forty. Hobbes lived in one of the most significant periods of English history. He went to school, the end of the reign of Elizabeth I, was a graduate of the University tutor and an expert on ancient languages ??in the era of James I, he studied philosophy in the reign of Charles I, was known and was under suspicion under Cromwell, and finally came into vogue as a historian, poet and almost indispensable attribute of British life in the era of the Restoration.
Hobbes was raised by his uncle who possessed a considerable fortune, and sought to give his nephew a decent education. The child went to school in four years, and six years teaching Latin and Greek. At fourteen years old, learn the language so that he could freely place the burden of Euripides Latin pentameter, it was given in Modlin Hall, one of the colleges of Oxford University, where five years later received a bachelor`s degree. In 1608 Hobbes was lucky he got a job as tutor in the family of William Cavendish, Earl of Devonshire. Thus began which lasted all his life relationship with Cavendish family.
The funds, which it received thanks to the mentoring, enough for it to pursue academic studies. Hobbes also had the opportunity to meet with influential people at his disposal was a first-class library, among other things, accompanying traveling young Cavendish, he was able to visit France and Italy, which was the strongest incentive of his mental development. In fact, the intellectual biography of Hobbes, the only one worthy of interest aspect of his life, can be divided into three periods, respectively, travel in Europe.
The first trip in 1610 inspired him to study classical authors, as in Europe, the Aristotelian philosophy, in the tradition of which he was raised, was considered outdated. Hobbes returned to England, determined to get acquainted with the deeper thinkers of antiquity. In this he strengthened and the conversation with the Lord Chancellor Francis Bacon `during the wonderful walks in Goramberi`. These conversations took place, apparently, between 1621 and 1626, when Bacon was already dismissed and engaged in writing treatises and various research projects. Perhaps Hobbes convey not only Bacon`s contempt for Aristotelianism, but also the belief that knowledge - is power, and the aim of science is to improve the conditions of human life. In his autobiography, written in Latin in 1672, he writes about the lessons of antiquity as the happiest period of his life. Its completion should be regarded as the translation of Thucydides History, published in part in order to warn fellow countrymen about the dangers of democracy, because at that time Hobbes, like Thucydides, was on the side of `tsarskoy` power.
In 1628, during his second trip to Europe, Hobbes intensely interested geometry, the existence of which is recognized by chance, find Euclid on the table in the library of a gentleman. Hobbes`s biographer John Aubrey depict this discovery: `Oh my God, he cried (sometimes he swore, when he was interested in something), it is impossible! And he read the proof, referring to the thesis. Reads thesis. It sends it to the next thesis, which he also read. Et sic deinceps (and so on), and finally he is convinced of the truth of the withdrawal. And he falls in love geometriyu`. Hobbes is now convinced that the geometry provides a method by which his views on the social order may be presented as conclusive evidence. Diseases of the society on the verge of civil war, will be cured, if people are to understand the rationale for a reasonable government, as set out in a clear and coherent thesis, such evidence can view updates.
Third journey Hobbes on continental Europe (1634-1636) introduced another ingredient in his system of natural and social philosophy. In Paris, he became a member of Mersenne circle, which included Descartes, P.Gassendi and other representatives of the new science and philosophy, and in 1636 made a pilgrimage to Italy to Galilee. By 1637 he was ready to develop its own system of philosophy; it is believed that Galileo himself Hobbes proposed to extend the principles of the new philosophy of nature to the sphere of human activity. Hobbes was a grand idea generalization science of mechanics and geometrical deduction of human behavior from abstract principles of the new science of motion. `For, observing that life is only movement members ... that is the heart, it does not spring? What nerves is not the same thread, and joints - not the same as the wheel, reporting movement throughout the body as this would `master?
According to Hobbes, his original contribution to philosophy was developed by him optics, as well as the theory of the state. A short treatise on First Principles (A Short Tract on First Principles) Hobbes is a criticism of the Aristotelian theory of sensation and a sketch of the new mechanics. After returning to England, Hobbes thought turned again to politics - society on the eve of the Civil War raged. In 1640 he put on his hands, just in time for the famous parliamentary session, a treatise Beginnings law, natural and political (The Elements of Law, Natural and Politic), which demonstrated the necessity of a unified and indivisible power of the sovereign. This treatise was published later, in 1650 in two parts - Human Nature (Human Nature, or the Fundamental Elements of Policie) and about the political body (De Corpore Politico, or the Elements of Law, Moral and Politic). When the Parliament is put the requirement of resignation of Earl of Strafford, Hobbes, fearing that it openly royalist views may become a threat to life, he fled to the Continent. Characteristically, later he was proud of the fact that `was the first of those bezhal`. Treatise on Citizenship (De cive) appeared shortly thereafter, in 1642. A second edition was published in 1647, and the English version in 1651 titled Outline of the philosophy of the state and society (Philosophical Rudiments Concerning Government and Society). This book - the second most important in the ideological heritage of Hobbes`s Leviathan until later. In it, he tried to definitively identify appropriate targets and border authorities, as well as the nature of the relationship between church and state. See. Also absolutism.
Originality of Hobbes was not only in ideas relating to optics and political theory. He dreamed of building a comprehensive theory that begins with simple movements, described the postulates of geometry, and ended with generalizations about the movement of people in political life, as it were, zoom in and out of each other. Hobbes proposed the concept of `` effort to postulate infinitesimal movements of various kinds - especially those that occur in the environment, between man and external bodies, in the sense organs inside the human body. The phenomena of sensation, imagination and dream - the action of small bodies, obeying the law of inertia; phenomena of motivation - the response to external and internal stimuli (a commonplace of modern psychology). Known theories of Hobbes that the accumulation of small movements poured at the macro level in the body in the form of two main movements - attraction and repulsion, which are approaching or moving away from the other bodies.
Hobbes planned trilogy of philosophical writing, which would give the interpretation of the body of man and citizen. The work on this ambitious project is constantly interrupted iz-za events on the political scene and in their personal lives Hobbes. He started work on Treatise on the body shortly after the publication of the treatise On citizenship, but finished it only after his return to England. Treatise On Man (De Homine) appeared in 1658. When the young Prince Charles (the future Charles II) was forced to flee to Paris after the defeat at the Battle of Neyzbi, Hobbes put my thoughts about physics and began work on his masterpiece - a treatise Leviathan, or the Matter , the shape and power of the state of ecclesiastical and civil (leviathan, or the Matter, Forme, and power of a Commonwealth, ecclesiastical and civil, 1651), which succinctly and pointedly formulated his views on man and the state (leviathan - sea monster described in The Book of Job 40-41). He was invited to Prince math teacher - a position he had to leave due to a serious illness that almost brought him to the grave.
The position of Hobbes in Paris has become very dangerous after the death in 1648 Mersenne, his friend and patron. Hobbes was suspected of atheism and anti-Catholicism. Charles I was executed in 1649, and until 1653, when Cromwell became Lord Protector, were incessant debate about the proper form of government. Leviathan appeared just in time, and it leads to arguments and unwillingness to Hobbes to be in too close a relationship with Prince Charles allowed him to implore Cromwell`s permission to return home. The Leviathan is proved, on the one hand, that sovereigns are empowered to rule on behalf of their citizens, rather than on the assent of God - exactly the same as stated in the Parliament; On the other hand, Hobbes used the theory of the social contract, in order to prove that the logical result of a state based on social consensus should be the absolute power of the sovereign. Therefore, his teachings could be used to justify any form of government whatever prevailed at the time.
Leviathan is generally considered writing on political topics. However, the author`s views on the nature of the state, preceded by abstracts of man as a natural being, and `` the car and completed lengthy polemical arguments about what should be a `` true religion. Almost half of the total volume of Leviathan is devoted to discussion of religious issues.
Political analysis of Hobbes, his concept of `natural sostoyaniya` and communities based on mechanistic psychology. Under the phenomena of social behavior, Hobbes believed to be hiding fundamental reaction of attraction and repulsion, turning into a desire for power and the fear of death. People driven by fear, united in a community by giving up the right to `` unlimited self-assertion in favor of the sovereign, and authorizing him to act on their behalf. If people are taking care of their security, they have agreed on a `public dogovor`, the sovereign power must be absolute; otherwise, torn by conflicting claims, they will always be under the threat of anarchy inherent in the natural state of non-contractual.
In the field of moral philosophy Hobbes also developed a naturalistic theory as a consequence of its mechanistic concept of man. civilized behavior rules (called in the time of Hobbes` natural pravom`), he believed, are deducible from the rules of prudence that should be taken by all who have the intellect and seeks to survive. A civilization based on fear and prudent self-interest rather than on the nature of our inherent sociality. Under `blagom` we mean just what we wish; under the `` evil - what to avoid. Being fairly consistent thinker Hobbes believed in determinism and believed that an act is simply `the last drive in the process of deliberation, directly adjacent to the acting or refraining from action `.
In theory, the concept of the rights of Hobbes is known as the law commands of the sovereign, which was an important step in clarifying the differences between statutory law (while only nascent) and the common law. Hobbes also was well aware of the distinction between questions: `What is the law?` `Fair and whether the law?` That people - and in the ancient times, and today - have a tendency to mix. In many ways, Hobbes anticipated the main provisions of the legal theory Dzh.Ostina.
Hobbes saw religion not as a true system, but as a system of laws; Leviathan is a great place to take the proof that there is every reason - coming from common sense and from the Scriptures - to assume that the sovereign is the best interpreter of the will of God. Hobbes consistently distinguished between knowledge and faith and believed that we can not know anything about the attributes of God. Words, in which we describe God, are an expression of our love, and not the product of the activity of the mind. He especially resented, protecting `` the true religion from the double threat of Catholicism and Puritanism, which appealed to authorities other than the power of the sovereign, - the authority of the pope or to the voice of conscience. Hobbes did not hesitate to apply the mechanistic approach to the concepts of Scripture and believed that God must have a body, albeit sparse enough to be able to talk about his existence as a substance.
Many modern philosophers emphasize the importance of Hobbes put forward the concept of the language in which the mechanistic theory of the origin of speech was coupled with nominalism in the interpretation of the meaning of common terms. Hobbes criticized the scholastic doctrine of essences, showing that this and other similar exercises are due to incorrect use of different classes of terms. The names can be the names of the bodies, the names of properties or the names themselves names. If we use the names of one type instead of another type names, we come to the absurd allegations. For example, `` universal - the name to refer to the class name rather than the entity, allegedly called by these names; such names are called `universaliyami` by virtue of its use, and not because they represent a special class of objects. Thus Hobbes anticipated the ideas of many philosophers of the 20th century., Preaching the ideals of clarity and use the theory of language to criticize the metaphysical teachings, is inhabited by the world `` unnecessary entities. Hobbes also insisted that the language is essential to the argument and that it is the ability to reason (in the sense of taking the definitions and draw conclusions using general terms) distinguishes man from animals.
Returning to England at the end of 1651, Hobbes soon joined the discussion with Bishop Bremhollom on free will. The result was his work Questions about freedom, necessity and the case (The Questions Concerning Liberty, Necessity, and Chance, 1656). Then he was involved in the most humiliating of his life in the dispute, because in the twentieth chapter of the treatise On the body, the first part of the trilogy abmitsioznoy, published in 1655, Hobbes suggested method of calculating the squared circle. It was seen by John Wallis (1616-1703), professor of geometry, and Seth Ward, a professor of astronomy. Both of them were Puritans and were among the founders of the Royal Society in London, in which Hobbes had not had a chance to start. The professors were irritated by criticism of Hobbes university education system, and retaliated by pointing to his ignorance in the field of mathematics. Make it was not difficult, since Hobbes began to be engaged in geometry and forty years, and Descartes had already pointed to the amateur nature of his evidence. The scandal lasted for about twenty years and often took the character of personal attacks on both sides. By this time include the work of Hobbes Six lessons a professor of mathematics at Oxford University (Six Lessons to the Professors of Mathematics in the University of Oxford, 1656); D
ialogi about physics, or the air Nature (Dialogus Physicus, sive de Natura Aeris, 1661); Mr. Hobbes in terms of loyalty, faith, reputation and behavior (Mr. Hobbes Considered in His Loyalty, Religion, Reputation and Manners, 1662) and other writings of a polemical nature, against Wallace, R. Boyle and other scientists, united around Royal society.
However, the energy of Hobbes, great for a man of his age (seventy years old, he was still playing tennis), did not go away entirely in the hopeless disputes. In 1658 he published the second part of the trilogy - a treatise on man. Then came the unfortunate events that stop the flow of his publications. During the Restoration, despite the fact that Hobbes was presented to the court, and the king is very appreciated his wit, he was a victim of prejudice and fear gripped while society. They were looking for a reason for displeasure of God, summed up in a terrible plague and a huge fire in London (respectively 1664-1665 and 1666), and was discussed in the parliament a bill against atheism and blasphemy. It was a commission, whose mandate was to study on the subject of Leviathan. However, it soon the case was closed, apparently after the intervention of Charles II.
Nevertheless, Hobbes was forbidden to publish essays on relevant topics, and he took up historical research. In 1668 work was completed Behemoth or the Long Parliament (Behemoth, or the Long Parliament) - the story of the Civil War from the point of view of his philosophy of man and society; work was published after the death of a thinker, not earlier than 1692. Start reading the common law of England Francis Bacon, who was sent by his friend John Aubrey (1626-1697), Hobbes at the age of 76 years wrote a Dialogue between a philosopher and student of the common law of England (Dialogues between a Philosopher and a Student of the Common Laws of England), published posthumously in 1681.
At the age of 84 years, the philosopher wrote an autobiography in verse form in Latin, and two years later for failure to better application of forces made translations of the Iliad (1675) and then the Odyssey (1676) Homer. In 1675 he left London, moving to Chatsworth, and in 1679 learned about his own imminent death emergency. It is said that when he heard about his terminal illness, Hobbes said: `Nakonets-to I shall find a loophole and get out of this world `. He amused himself by letting friends prepare for the future gravestone epitaph. Most of all he liked the words: `This is a true philosophical kamen`. Hobbes died at Hardwick Hall (Derbyshire) December 4, 1679.
On the tombstone inscription was that it was a man in a fair and well-known for his learning at home and abroad. This is true, and although around his views were endless noisy debate, no one ever doubted that Hobbes was a whole person, and had an outstanding intellect and remarkable wit.