Thomas Hobbes

English philosopher and political theorist, author of Leviathan

Thomas Hobbes, born on 5 April 1588 in Westport, Wiltshire, was a philosopher and political theorist.^[1][2] The 1651 work Leviathan contains Hobbes's influential development of social contract theory.^[3][4]

Quick Facts

Region

Western philosophy

Era

17th-century philosophy

Born

5 April 1588

Birthplace

Westport, Wiltshire, England

Died

4 December 1679

Place of death

Ault Hucknall, Derbyshire, England

Education

Magdalen Hall
Oxford
St John's College
Cambridge (BA)

Main interests

Political philosophy
history
ethics
geometry

Facts from the source article.

Life and work

Hobbes's father, Thomas Sr., was a vicar who left the family after a fight with local clergy.^[5][6][2] A wealthy uncle sponsored Hobbes's education at Oxford University, where he studied at Magdalen Hall.^[7][8] After graduating in 1608, Hobbes became tutor to William Cavendish, beginning a lifelong connection with the Cavendish family.^[9][8] In 1628, Hobbes published the first English translation of Thucydides's History of the Peloponnesian War directly from a Greek manuscript.^[10]

In 1640, fearing the reaction of the Long Parliament to his writings, Hobbes fled to Paris and remained there for 11 years.^[10][8] Between 1646 and 1648, Hobbes served as a mathematics tutor to Charles, Prince of Wales, in Paris.^[10][8] Hobbes died on 4 December 1679 at Hardwick Hall, aged 91, after suffering a bladder disorder and a paralytic stroke.^[11] Between 1610 and 1615, Hobbes traveled through Europe with the younger William Cavendish, gaining exposure to scientific and critical methods.^[6]

The 1651 publication of Leviathan caused anger among Anglicans and French Catholics due to its secularist content.^[12][13][14]

What the cited sources add

The BBC account states that Hobbes's father left the family in 1604 and never returned, so a wealthy uncle sponsored his education.^[8] The Stanford Encyclopedia notes that Hobbes's first notable philosophical works are from around 1640.^[2] The same source reports that Hobbes worked as a secretary to Francis Bacon around 1620.^[2] The Britain Unlimited biography records that Hobbes's father disappeared after a fight at his church door, leaving his three children to his brother.^[14]

The same source states that in 1651 Hobbes became reviled by English Royalists and French Catholics over the secularism in Leviathan.^[14] According to the Stanford Encyclopedia, a cosmological argument for God's existence appears in Hobbes's The Elements of Law.^[2]

References

Wikipedia, "Thomas Hobbes" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Hobbes, "Vita carmine expressa", 1679, p. 86 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
Duncan, "The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy", Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University, 2021. facts only, no text reused. plato.stanford.edu
Wikipedia, "Thomas Hobbes" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Lloyd, "Hobbes's Moral and Political Philosophy", Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University, 2022; Williams, "Hobbes, Thomas: Moral and Political Philosophy", Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy; Sheldon, "The History of Political Theory: Ancient Greece to Modern America", Peter Lang, 2003, p. 253 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
Lloyd, "Hobbes's Moral and Political Philosophy", Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University, 2022. facts only, no text reused. plato.stanford.edu
Wikipedia, "Thomas Hobbes" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Jacobson, Norman. Review of Rogow, Arnold A. (1986). Thomas Hobbes: Radical in the Service of Reaction. Political Psychology, Vol. 8, No. 3 (1987), p. 469. (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
Wikipedia, "Thomas Hobbes" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Sommerville, "Thomas Hobbes: Political Ideas in Historical Context", MacMillan, 1992, p. 256–324 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
Wikipedia, "Thomas Hobbes" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Robertson 1911, p. 545; "Philosophy at Hertford College", Hertford College; Helden, "Hobbes, Thomas", The Galileo Project, 1995; King, "Thomas Hobbes: Politics and law", Routledge, 1993, p. 89 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
"Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679)", BBC. facts only, no text reused. bbc.co.uk
Wikipedia, "Thomas Hobbes" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Robertson 1911, p. 545; Malcolm, Noel, "Hobbes, Thomas (1588–1679), philosopher", 2004; Robertson 1911, p. 545; O'Connor, "Thomas Hobbes", School of Mathematics and Statistics, November 2002 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
Wikipedia, "Thomas Hobbes" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Robertson 1911, p. 545 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
Wikipedia, "Thomas Hobbes" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Robertson 1911, p. 545; Grounds, "The Bedside Book of Final Words", Amberley Publishing Limited, 25 November 2014, p. 20; Malcolm, "Aspects of Hobbes", Oxford University Press, 2003, p. 80 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
Wikipedia, "Thomas Hobbes" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Aubrey, "Brief Lives: Chiefly of Contemporaries", Clarendon Press, 1898, p. 277 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
Wikipedia, "Thomas Hobbes" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Robertson 1911, p. 545; Robertson 1911, p. 545; Robertson 1911, p. 545; Robertson 1911, p. 545; Robertson 1911, p. 545; Robertson 1911, p. 545; "Thomas Hobbes Biography", Britain Unlimited (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
"Thomas Hobbes Biography", Britain Unlimited. facts only, no text reused. britainunlimited.com

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Thomas Hobbes (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.