Thomas Hobbes

(1588-1679)

Background: Born in England in 1588, Thomas Hobbes became

remembered for his work in philosophy and government, among many
other things. Not much is known of this great man’s beginnings,
however. Thomas Hobbes was a man who became interested in
history; he looked at the past to see what would happen in the present.
Because as everyone knows, history repeats itself.

1. Can be attributed to the U.S. Constitution

a. He saw people as weak and selfish, and thus in constant need of
the governance that could save them from destruction. These
ideas profoundly affected the Federalists during the early
formation of U.S. law. The Federalists turned to Hobbes's work
for justification for passage of the U.S. Constitution as well as for
intellectual support for their own movement in the years
following that passage. Today, Hobbes is read not only for his
lasting contributions to political-legal theory in general but for
the ideas that helped shape U.S. history. Embracing Hobbes's
pessimism, the Federalists saw the American people as unable
to survive as a nation without a strong central government that
would protect them from foreign powers.
i. America would not be the nation it is today WITHOUT
Thomas Hobbes, and that is a fact.
2. He tutored future Charles II of England
a. Since Hobbes was very pro-monarchy, it is understandable how
a leader such as Charles II, struggled against Parliament to
maintain absolute power.
i. If Charles II had defeated Parliament in the epic power
struggle that they had held, Parliament would be no more.
And Thomas Hobbes could be directly attributed to
England being an absolute monarchy, much like France.
3. Work with optics
a. Hobbes’s most significant contributions to natural science
were in the field of optics.
i. The most polished of Hobbes’s optical works was A
Minute or First Draught of the Optiques (1646).
1. Hobbes’s optical theory held that the dilations
and contractions of an original light source,
such as the Sun, are transmitted by contact
 with a uniform, pervading ethereal medium,
which in turn stimulates the eye and the
nerves connected to it, eventually resulting in
a “phantasm,” or sense-image, in the brain.
a. This directly contradicted Aristotle’s work
on optics
b. His work on optics was used to help
formulate Isaac Newton’s theories on
optics.
4. Man is inherently evil.
a. Hobbes was a staunch believer in the idea that man has
certain instincts for self betterment and will put his needs
ahead of others’.
i. Kids throw temper tantrums, not because they are
taught to, but because that is what they know will get
them what they want.
b. With these beliefs he wrote his Bible, his coup de gras, his
Sistine Chapel
i. … Leviathan, or the Matter, Form, and Power of a
Commonwealth, Ecclesiastical and Civil (1651)
1. His ideas were that men NEEDED a Leviathan, a
powerful sea monster that leaves them in fear, that
makes their decisions for them.
a. He believed this because.. Man is inherently
evil.
b. The Leviathan HAD to be government.
He wanted the government to be
absolute and without mercy. He figured
there would be far less civil war if one
person got what they wanted, and
everyone modified their needs to him.
i. However, he did contradict himself
once when he believed that there
should be a voice of the people
that can talk to the king and let
him know how the people feel of
his actions.
2. Thus, people could not survive on their own in the
state of nature. This foundation led him to a theory
of the law: only by submitting to the protection of a
sovereign power could individuals avoid constant
 ANARCHY and war. The sovereign's authority would
have to be absolute. Law derived from this
authority rather than from objective truth, which he
argued did not exist. All citizens of the state were
morally bound to follow the sovereign's authority;
otherwise, law could not function. Hobbes chose
the leviathan (a large sea animal) to represent the
state, and he maintained that like a whale, the
state could only be guided by one intelligence: its
sovereign's
3. To quote Hobbes himself:
a. "THE CONDITION OF MAN … IS A CONDITION OF WAR OF EVERYONE
AGAINST EVERYONE."
—THOMAS HOBBES
4. Hobbes’ Leviathan was meant to give a strong
statement for monarchy in england, but it was
released during the time of Oliver Cromwell, the
Lord Protectorate. Hobbes could possibly be
attributed to the fall of the Commonwealth of
England and the Stuart Restoration.
5. Although all of this sounds fine and good, the
monarchs actually disliked his ideas, because they
thought the formulation of their power was
designed on the DIVINE RIGHT THEORY, not off of
fear.
5. Hobbes and Locke

a. Thomas Hobbes' theories on "The Social Contract" came before

Locke's. Hobbes influenced him, that is why many experts or
historians claim that Locke's ideas were "superior" and overall,
more directly influential to virtually every democratic revolution
following them. In reports, it is never sequenced as "Hobbes, in
contrast to Locke...," it is always comparing Locke's ideas to
Hobbes'.