What Is Thomas Hobbes Political Controversy

Kush Patel
Modern World Civilizations Honors
Mr. Collins
Period 2
11/25/11
Political Controversy by a Malmesbury man “Thomas Hobbes was a man who boasted of his timidity as other men do of their courage. He was fearful of the dark, thieves, death and the wrath of the powerful men he offended; but this did not deflect him from his determination to seek the truth and inform the world of his findings.” The quote represents the personality of Thomas Hobbes because of the descriptions of what other might have thought of him. Thomas Hobbes was born in 1588. His birth was premature because of his mother’s reaction to the sighting of the Spanish Armada. Thomas’s father abandoned the family after Thomas’s
birth because of a crime he had committed. He was therefore raised by his uncle, whom financed his education at Malmesbury and at Magdalen Hall. Thomas Hobbes was a famous political philosopher. He was known as “Malmesburiesis Philosophus” by his friends because of his ability to comprehend human knowledge. Throughout his life, Thomas Hobbes had moments with the Cavendish family, a powerful family in England. Thomas Hobbes was a very controversial philosopher because of his viewpoints and how he had thought of them. Thomas Hobbes’s ideas are not agreeable because his viewpoints are only because it is only in best interest of a monarchy or absolute leadership’s control over society. Throughout his life and career as a philosopher, Thomas Hobbes had many controversial views on the nature of man and government.
Thomas Hobbes believed that a tyranny is a better government than anarchy. He believed this because with anarchy, the country would be in order and there will be subjects that would not be able to rebel. He had felt that citizens had to give up all rights while under a government and be under a social contract. Thomas Hobbes also felt that people did not have the right to rebel. In England’s society during the Civil War, it would make the parliamentarians because they were rebelling against the monarchy. Also, Thomas Hobbes believed that people should not summit to a government if the government does not protect them, which made people loyal to the monarchy look bad. Also, Thomas Hobbes had many views on how religious organizations can be run. He believed that the sovereign could decide what the religious or any other organizations can be run by. In his book, Leviathan, Hobbes’s materialistic ideology was key in this text has it described how government can save mankind from civil war with loyalty. In the text, Hobbes believed that a state without government is “nasty and brutish” because it is an anarchy and had no order. The book had an influence on atheists because it spoke of many points of atheistism. It was banned by the non-secular government of England because it was believed to have corrupted the young people. Thomas Hobbes believed
that in terms of the nature of man, man only cared about self-preservation, were egoistic and suspicious of others. Hobbes’s points make man bad because mankind was selfish with an ego and pitied others. Hobbes had many viewpoints on society and government that was influential. Throughout Thomas Hobbes’s long life, there were many events and circumstances that shaped his viewpoints on government and society.
After graduation from Oxford, he was hired by the Cavendish family to educate the son of William Cavendish, the 1st Earl of Devonshire. He became good friends with William Cavendish and traveled with him. After a sudden death of William Cavendish in 1628, he soon believed that people die young when with an “excessive indulgence in good living”. In November 1631, Hobbes came back and tutored the 3rd Earl of Devonshire. He had a Grand Tour of Europe with the boy in 1610. He met with the great scientists and intellectuals of the time in Paris at Place Royale. He learned from Descartes, Pascal, and Gassendi. He studies with Marin Mersenne the works of Galileo. Thomas Hobbes learned many things about science and philosophy before returning with the Earl back to England. One event that changed Hobbes’s life was when Hobbes read Euclid’s “Elements” in a library in Geneva. While reading the text, Thomas Hobbes came to believing that geometry was an ‘old science that hath pleased God to bestow on mankind’. This made him obsessed with geometry and convinced Hobbes that this subject was what would help him find the truth in the science of politics. The English Civil War had made another impact on Thomas Hobbes. After returning to England from his tour in 1637, Hobbes had seen many political pamphlets being given and had decided to work on a system of
philosophy based on the order of Body, Man, and Society. Because of the problems in England, he decided to seek the problems with society. Most of Thomas Hobbes works relate to how bad society is and how it cannot be trusted. Most of his works were influenced on how he saw what was going on in the English Civil War. Thomas Hobbes’s ideas are controversial and therefore cannot be agree upon. After the English Civil War, that influenced his ideas, he published, Leviathan. The Leviathan was a book that was banned because by Parliament, it was getting the youth be become atheist and in England, the government was non-secular. It was corrupting the youth. Hobbes had a view that people should give up their rights and be loyal to government in exchange for protection. Hobbes pointed out that people did not have the right to rebel against their government. John Locke, a rival of Thomas Hobbes, believed that people can rebel against their government if their rights cannot be protected. Thomas Hobbes believed people do not need support a government that doesn’t protect them. The people under the social contract in Hobbes’s idea do not have basic rights. When the people cannot rebel and do not have rights, it is a totalitarianism government. Basically, Thomas Hobbes’s views are the basic ideas of what a dictatorship, tyranny, or totalitarianism is all about. Thomas Hobbes viewpoints are not like other English philosophers that focused on the good of people and rights mankind deserves. Thomas Hobbes believes in the worst of man that man is egoistic, selfish, and pities other people. Thomas Hobbes’s ideology about society and the government is controversial and cannot be agreeable to because of the interest of how the government rules over a corrupt nature of mankind. Thomas Hobbes had many beliefs that people cannot rebel against their government and are to be under social contract that they have to give up their rights for protection. Thomas Hobbes also believed that mankind is “nasty and brutish” and society cannot be trusted. Thomas Hobbes had many moments in his life that inspired him and influenced his philosophy. Thomas Hobbes spends at least forty years with connections to the Cavendish family. He was good friends with William Cavendish, 1st Earl of Devonshire. The death of a good moral person like Cavendish made Hobbes have new beliefs. The English Civil War had a major impact on the beliefs of Thomas Hobbes. The war helped him create his most famous book, Leviathan. Thomas Hobbes’s ideology of absolute monarchy explained was very controversial for Parliament in England. It was banned because of the atheist views. Thomas Hobbes had some ideology that was the basic views of dictatorships and totalitarianism. Thomas Hobbes is a controversial philosopher and has many views different to the ideas of other famous English philosophers, like John Locke. Thomas Hobbes has many things in his life that influenced him. Thomas Hobbes had many criticisms stopped in 1688 when the “The Glorious Revolution” took place in England. The dictators that impacted world history make Hobbes look bad as their absolute dictatorship represented Hobbes’s ideas. Thomas Hobbes is one of the most famous philosophers in European history and is a popular philosopher during the Age of Ennlightenment, questioning ideas from other philosophers for people to talk about in the salons.