Thomas Hobbes (redirected from Hobbesianism)

Hobbes, Thomas 

Born Apr. 5, 1588, in Malmesbury; died Dec. 4, 1679, in Hardwick. English materialist philosopher.

Hobbes was the son of a vicar. He graduated from Oxford in 1608 and became a tutor in the aristocratic family of W. Cavendish, later earl of Devonshire, with which he remained associated to the end of his life. The development of Hobbes’ thought was considerably influenced by F. Bacon, Galileo, P. Gassendi, and R. Descartes. His principal works include the philosophical trilogy De corpore (1655), De homine (1658), and De cive (1642), and Leviathan, or the Matter, Form, and Power of a Commonwealth, Ecclesiastical and Civil (1651; Russian translation, 1936).

Working along the same lines as Bacon, Hobbes “destroyed the theistic prejudices of Baconian materialism” (K. Marx and F. Engels, Soch., 2nd ed., vol. 2, p. 144). In his polemic with Descartes, Hobbes rejected the existence of a special thinking substance, arguing that a rational thing is a material entity. Hobbes created the first complete system of mechanistic materialism, corresponding to the character and demands of the natural science of his day. For Hobbes, geometry and mechanics are the ideal models for scientific thought in general. He conceives of nature as the sum total of extended bodies differing from each other in magnitude, figure, position, and motion. Motion is interpreted mechanically; as movement from one point to another. Qualities perceived through the senses are regarded by Hobbes not as properties of things themselves but as forms of perception of things. Hobbes differentiated between extension, an inherent property of bodies, and space, an image created by reason (a phantasm), as well as between the objectively real movement of bodies and time, the subjective image of movement. He distinguished between two methods of cognition—the logical deduction of rationalist “mechanics” and the induction of empirical “physics.”

In Hobbes’ view the state resulted from a contract between men, which put an end to the pregovernment natural condition of “war of all against all.” He adhered to the idea of the primordial equality of men. Individual citizens voluntarily limited their rights and liberty in favor of the state, whose task is to ensure peace and security. Hobbes exalted the role of the state, which he held to be absolutely sovereign. On the question of the form of the state, Hobbes’ sympathies were on the side of monarchy. Defending the necessity of the submission of church to state, he considered it essential to preserve religion as an ideological weapon of state power for keeping the people in check.

Hobbes’ ethics stem from his view of “human nature” as unchanging and concupiscible. He believed the basis of morality to be “natural law”—the striving for self-preservation and for the satisfaction of needs. Virtue is determined by the rational understanding of what facilitates or hinders the attainment of the good. Moral duty coincides with civic responsibilities arising out of the social contract.

Hobbes’ teachings greatly influenced the later development of philosophy and social thought.

WORKS

Opera philosophica, quae latine scripsit …, vols. 1-5. Edited by W. Molesworth. London, 1839-45.
The English Works, vols. 1-11. Edited by W. Molesworth. London, 1839-45.
In Russian translation:
Izbr. soch., vols. 1-2. Moscow-Leningrad, 1926.
Izbr. proizv., vols. 1-2. Moscow, 1964.

REFERENCES

Bykhovskii, B. E. “Psikhofizicheskoe uchenie T. Gobbsa.” Vestnik Komakademii, 1928, no. 26(2).
Cheskis, A. A. Tomas Gobbs. Moscow, 1929.
Pod znamenem marksizma, 1938, no. 6. (Articles by B. E. Bykhovskii, L. German, M. Petrosova, and D. Bikhdriker.)
Deborin, A. M. “Tomas Gobbs.” In his collection Ocherkipo istorii materializma 17-18 vv., Moscow-Leningrad, 1930.
Golosov, V. F. Ocherkipo istorii angliiskogo materializma 17-18 vv. Krasnoiarsk, 1958.
Tönnies, F. Th. Hobbes, der Mann und der Denker. Osterwieck, 1912.
Polin, R. Politique et philosophic chez Thomas Hobbes. Paris, 1952.
Peters, R. Hobbes. [London, 1956.]
Hobbes Studies. Edited by K. C. Brown. Oxford, 1965.
McNeilly, F. S. The Anatomy of Leviathan. New York-London, 1968.
Gauthier, D. P. The Logic of Leviathan. Oxford, 1969.

B. E. BYKHOVSKII