Thomas Hobbes: Moral And Political Philosophy

Thomas Hobbes: Moral and Political Philosophy (1588-1679)

Thomas Hobbes was an English philosopher in the seventeenth century. He was a politically influential philosopher with a variety of interests. He supported a range of materialist, nominalist, and empiricist views. Materialism is an idea that everything is made up of matter or dependent upon matter for existence in nature. Materialism tends to reject the existence of a spirit or anything of nonphysical form by Wolff, 2011. There are at least two kinds of Nominalism, one that maintains that there are no universals and one that maintains that there are no abstract objects by Rodriguez-Pereyra, Hobbes believes that only universal things are names. Empiricism is the theory that all human

knowledge comes from the evidence of our five senses, and therefore we can never know more, or know with greater certainty, than our senses will allow by Wolff, 2011.
Hobbes set out to write three treatises for his philosophical work including: matter or body, human nature, and society. Hobbes’ work was influenced by a reaction against religious authority and the scholastic philosophy that defended the religious authority. Next, Hobbes took a liking to the involvement of the scientific method with a focus in geometry. The political problems in his home country inspired him to focus on society first. Hobbes published the highly controversial, Philosophical Rudiments Concerning Government and Society. Hobbes also expressed controversial views on God and religion by Williams, n.d.
In 1951, Hobbes wrote the publication of Leviathan his most influential work.

Hobbes calls the government an organism, showing how each part of the government functions similarly to parts of a human body. At this point in Leviathan, Hobbes describes his views on human nature. He described human nature using a metaphoric approach. He believes that all human acts are ultimately selfish. Regardless if the acts appear to be good deeds. There is always some type of personal gain or ulterior motive. According to Hobbes, without any form of government to mediate, it is human nature to act self-serving way. He believes that all humans are psychologically and physically equal. Humans are naturally susceptible to fight each other because of the equality. Where one lacks in strength, they make up for it with wisdom and vice

versa.
He cites three natural reasons that humans fight; which is competition over material good, general distrust, and the glory of powerful positions. Hobbes comes to the conclusion that humanity's natural condition is a state of continuous war, constant fear, and lack of morals.
In Leviathan, Hobbes writes that morals consist of Laws of Nature. Laws of Nature are understood through social agreement through the reasoning to preserve human life. Hobbes declares his laws of nature; which are derived from geometry. With the following five principles he came up with fifteen laws. The five general principles are: that human beings pursue only their own self-interest, that all people are equal, the three natural causes of quarrel, the natural condition of everlasting war, and the motivation for peace.
Hobbes believed that the responsibility of the people lies with government. This is where he came up the title of his book Leviathan. The thought of the best government would have the power of a sea monster, or leviathan. He saw the king as a necessity of leadership and authority. He felt that democracy would never work because people are only motivated by self-interest. He saw humanity as being motivated by a constant need for power, and to give power to the individual would result in a war of every one against the other that would make life "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short." The more powerful the government the better. Hobbes concludes that a king with limitless rights should rule, retrieved from The European Graduate School, 2015.
Major philosophical problems with Thomas Hobbes’ views are that he believes we should give up certain liberties to ensure security by submitting ourselves to the rules of the government.

To an extent government is in place to protect the people. In reality, the government are people with the same self-centered body with unlimited powers. The government can also be influenced by its own selfishness. The United States is a fine example that democracy is effective. Also, Hobbes work in Leviathan doesn’t offer a state of physiology and phycology during his time period. All of Hobbes’ views are limited and biased based on his own perspective. His works are centered on solving the problems of political

philosophy.

References

Rodriguez-Pereyra, G. (2015, April 1). Nominalism in Metaphysics. Retrieved July 25, 2015.

Thomas Hobbes Biography. (n.d.). Retrieved July 26, 2015, from http://www.egs.edu/library/thomas-hobbes/biography/

Wolff, R. (2012). About philosophy. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall.

Bibliography
Duncan, S. (2009, March 11). Thomas Hobbes. Retrieved July 25, 2015.

Williams, G. (n.d.). Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved July 25, 2015.