Hobbes; Background Flashcards
Where and when was Thomas Hobbes born?
Wiltshire in 1588
What was happening when he was born?
At that moment, the Spanish Armada were coming and attacking the British Coast (Spanish fleet of 130 ships that wanted to invade England)
What happened to Hobbes’ mother during the Spanish armada?
She arguably went into labour prematurely due to terror of the Spanish Armada.
Hobbes says his mother gave birth to twins, why?
Hobbes and Fear.
What does his birth story alert us to?
That fear is central to how Hobbes thinks of the world and human nature.
Was Hobbes elite?
What was his father’s job?
No , not from an elite background; poor family.
His father had no profession, he was a drunk.
Who paid for Hobbes education?
His rich uncle.
Where did Hobbes go at the age of 14?
Oxford
What type of education would Hobbes have had?
humanist education.
List two subjects Hobbes would have done?
Classical history
Grammer
Moral philosophy
What did Hobbes later become suspicious of that he studied at school?
classical history.
What was the normal career path for someone who went to Oxford?
would become a clergyman, lawyer or tutor in an aristocratic house.
What profession did Hobbes follow?
Who did he spend his entire life working for?
Became a tutor and spent entire life working for earl of Devonshire.
What did his job give him a lot of time to do?
Study and think
What did he begin his writing career doing?
Translating Thucydides translation of war.
What was he interested in by Thucydides?
Interested in the fact that Athens loses great war against Bart because Athens is a democracy.
What did Hobbes think about democracy?
That its an unstable thing, tends to bad decisions
Who is it easy to fall prey to in democracy?
Demagogues who manipulate the demos
List two types of people that would have been alienated by Hobbes way of political thinking?
monarchists
republicans
democrats
any political affiliation in 17nth century.
Was Hobbes a monarch, a democrat or a nazi?
lolll
He was a monarchist
What was the traditional way of justifying absolute monarchy?
through divine right, kings rule by divine law, chosen by God.
Hobbes defended monarchy in a modern, secular way by suggesting …
that it’s all about self interest; individuals realise its in their individual interest to subject themselves to absolute political authority for protection/ self preservation.
His argument about monarchical government is motivated primarily by?
protection.
Should you have any loyalty for the monarchy regime?
Absolutely not, if not in best interest, you should transfer your loyalties.
Political context to Leviathan; What is the wider problem in 17nth century Europe?
Religious warfare; tail end of religious wars
Political context to Leviathan; What was just coming to an end at the time of Hobbes writing Leviathan?
30 year war that raged in germany
Political context to Leviathan; religious divisions translated into …
political divisions into civil war.
Political context to Leviathan; English civil war was a religious conflict but it was also about the scope of royal authority, why?
Steward monarchy made a demand for finance and demand was scorned by parliament who wanted a degree of political reform before finance.
Political context to Leviathan; What did the english civil war make a debate about? (to do with crown)
What rights and privileges does crown actually have?
Intellectual context to Leviathan; Hobbes is a child of the
early enlightenment.
Intellectual context to Leviathan; What was Hobbes interested in?
mathematics and optics.
Intellectual context to Leviathan; What was the general scepticism about in European philosophy at the time?
Does diversity of human customs cast doubt on moral universals (is there a universal good or bad when we encounter customs so alien to our own?)
Intellectual context to Leviathan; What spurred on the debate about human diversity?
Encounter between Europe and new world.
Intellectual context to Leviathan; At the time of Hobbes and Grotius, how did natural rights allow you to do illiberal things?
natural rights allowed you to do illiberal things because you have the right to enslave yourself if its for self preservation.
Intellectual context to Leviathan; What did Grotius say right and wrong and acceptance?
should accept enormous diversity of ideas about what’s right and wrong.
Intellectual context to Leviathan; What does everyone have the universal right to? and what is universally unjust? according to Grotius?
all have a right to self-preservation.
Unnecessary harming others is unjust.
Hobbes’ believes in treating all philosophy as a…
single system.
According to Hobbes, can you examine one area of knowledge independently?
No
List the three branches that Hobbes’ philosophical system is divided into?
(What is one of the questions he asks in reference to this branch)
physics; what is the world made up of? Is it matter? Do things move randomly?
human nature; what are human beings like? How do they behave and think?
politics: life of the citizen, what do these humans do when they live together in society.
