Hobbes Flashcards
Is he an empiricist or rationalist? Where is he from?
-Empiricist
-Britain
What side of the political spectrum is he on?
-Right side of the political spectrum
-Fear, desire, greed
Who are the 3 figures that he builds upon their ideas?
Euclid, Galileo, Thucydides
What does he take from Euclid?
Axioms which are fundamental principles
What does he take from Thucydides?
Context of the Peloponnesian war
What does he take from Galileo?
Galileo’s theory of movement, everything is made up of matter in motion
What does Galileo teach about the ontological vision?
(3 pts)
-Everything is made of matter in motion
-“How to be a human being” —> Explained by material in motion, even a human being is simply matter in motion
-Informed by sense data, trains of thought are formed by material in movement in the brain
Hobbes is BLANK, BLANK, BLANK
Elaborate on these 3 things?
(4 pts)
Hobbes is materialistic, reductionists, pessimistic
-Everything can be reduced to the material
-Views human beings as materialistic and pessimistic
-His philosophy is reductive
What are the dominating emotions?
What are we driven by?
-Desire (for more) & fear (of losing what what we have)
To BLANK, to BLANK, is to BLANK
To think, to reason, is to calculate
Hobbes wants to discover the…
natural state of human society
How do we get out of this state of nature?
What are the two ideas Hobbes puts forward?
(5 pts)
Right of nature:
-Just by being a “being of nature” “I have a right to anything I want or desire” and “there is no limit to my natural right”
-Motivated primarily by desire
Law of nature:
-Fear of losing everything- creature of fear/reason
-I must not do anything that can bring harm to me
-Motivated by/derived from fear and it is calculated and derived from reason
What is Leviathan?
( 5 pts)
-An individual, small group, mortal god, an informed creature, contractually obliged to keep its word
-Embodiment of the general right of the people; “He represents the power of the people”
-The embodiment of all the rights of nature of all the citizens; “creation of transfer of rights”
-Every individual sacrifices their right to the leviathan
-In exchange the leviathan imposes the law of nature, where everyone is protected and in exchange for peace and comfort of the community
