Biography
Thomas Gobbs is an English scientist and thinker of the XVII century, who was considered the founder of political philosophy and contributed to such sciences as history, jurisprudence, theology, physics and geometry. The most famous work of Hobbes became the "Leviafan" treatise, recognized as one of the early and influential examples of the theory of the public contract.Fate
Thomas Gobbs was born in the English city of Westport, now called Malmsbury, April 5, 1588. The boy was named after Father, Thomas-senior who served as Vicaria in Charlton and Westport. When the children of Hobbs were small, the parent came up with the local confessors and left London, leaving a family to the care of an elder brother, a rich and lonely merchant. The name and nature of the lessons of the mother remained unknown.
As a child, the future philosopher attended a local church school, and then a private board. In 1603, Thomas became a college student Magdalen Hall, who was the predecessor of Oxford Hatford. Training on an individual program, Gobbs received a bachelor's degree and, on the recommendation of one of the teachers, got a mentor to the aristocratic family of Cavendis.
Thomas became a companion of Young Baron William, and in 1610, the young men went on tour in Europe, during which Hobbes met with advanced scientific and critical methods, radically distinguished from English scholastic teachings. The future genius of the poverty read the classic Greek and Latin authors and translated their works in the native language. Among the works of this time, the most famous was the adaptation of the "History of the Peloponnesian War" Fukidid.
After the companion of Hobbes died from the plague in 1628, the mentor had to look for a new place. For some time he was close to the poet and playwright Ben Johnson, and then worked as a secretary from the English philosopher and the policy of Francis Bacon. At this time, the future scientist was carried away by geometry and thoroughly studied the "beginning" Euclida, having learned from the book methods of formation of theses and submitting evidence.
Until 1631, Thomas served as a tutor from the Baronet of Jervey Klifon, and then returned to the house of Cavendish to raise the eldest son of his previous student. The following few years HBBS expanded knowledge in the field of philosophy and improved the art of disputes. In 1634, he again went to Europe, where he joined Maren Mersenna's circle and regularly participated in the philosophical debate with René Descartes and Pierre Gassendi.
Biographers argue that in 1636, Thomas visited Italy and met the Great Galileo Galileem, which recommended transferring philosophical theories into real life.
The English revolution 1640 - 1653 forced Hobbes to leave their homeland for a long time and settle in Paris. There, under the influence of members, a mug of Mersenna, the philosopher finally formed a system of views on the fundamental issues of human being.
At this time, Hobbes worked as a teacher of mathematics of a young prince Wales, who came to France from Jersey Island. Returning to London in 1651, the scientist published written works and soon completed the construction of his own philosophical system, which lasted for 20 years.
In 1666, the House of Communities presented a bill against atheism and profanation, and the books of Hobbes, who fell under the article about the heresy, attracted their close attention of the authorities. Fearing persecution, he burned compromising paper, but still lost the right to publish work in England. The last work of the scientist was autobiography, written in verses, and English translation of the ancient Greek "Odyssey" of Homer.
The personal life of the philosopher is known extremely small. Probably he lived alone, having no wife or children. According to contemporaries, Gobbs preferred to work in the dark with candles, so the curtains in the house were always deducted. He walked a lot and instead of reading books, talked with smart and educated people.
Hobbes suffered from the urinary bubble disorder, which in October 1679 led to a paralytic stroke, which caused the death of philosopher on December 4, 1679.
Philosophy
The HBBS philosopher was a materialist who denied the existence of disembodied spirituality and conceived his own system of thinking about the person and the universe. In early treatises, the scientist considered the body from the point of view of mechanics, believing that specific bodily movements are involved in the process of producing specific phenomena, such as sensations, knowledge, attachment and passion, and determine the interaction of people and education of society.
At the beginning of the 1640s, Thomas distributed the handwritten option "began law, natural and political", which was divided into 2 parts when published and called "human nature" and "about the body of political." In this work, the scientist for the first time touched the topics of power and formulated the principles on which the sole sovereign should have operated. In 1642, Hobbes wrote a work entitled "On a citizen", which was originally printed on Latin, and the English edition appeared 11 years later.
This work later became part of the trilogy of the "Fundamentals of Philosophy", consisting of treatments "about the body", "About man" and "On a citizen", where the scientist described the natural state of a person who requires the establishment of a stable rule, operating the concepts of policies and theology. For the first time, a statement about the "War of All against All" appeared, subsequently developed by Hobbes in Leviathan and entered the quotation collection.
Treatise "Matter, the form and power of the state of church and civilians", more known as Leviafan, has become a classic Western product about public administration and a vivid example of the theory of the public contract.
In this work, the philosopher described the image of a person, compared him with matter, which was in continuous movement, without circulation to the disembodied intangible soul and an abstract concept of idea. Arguing about good and evil, Gobbs argued that they were human desires or trends to move towards or from him.
The denying social concept of the greatest good, the scientist allowed the existence of the greatest evil, which was expressed in the fear of violent death and served as a support of state power. Finding a person beyond the political coalition, inevitably led to an anarchic state, a leading war against everyone.
Gobbs believed that such a state of affairs forced people to abandon natural rights and conclude agreements that were controlled by the Company that had the privilege to apply the force embodied in the concept of "state". Depending on who presented the interests of a person within the framework of the public contract, Hobbes allocated 3 types of state: the monarchy, democracy and aristocracy, which differed quantitatively and qualitatively.
Having preferred the monarchy, the scientist wrote that the wealth, the power and honor of the sole ruler flow out of the welfare, the strength and reputation of the subjects, and in a democratic or aristocratic state such a situation is impossible.
In Leviathan, Gobbs unequivocally stated that the ruler or sovereign should control civilian, military, judicial and church issues and completely eliminated the possibility of separation of government powers. This situation gave rise to social protests that brought to armed uprisings.
The treatise was first published in 1651 by placing an engraving on the title page with a portrait of a giant in a ring from tiny human bodies, towering over hills and plains. And Hobbs began to praise and criticize more than any of the prominent thinkers of that era. Young philosophers picked up the author's ideas about the state, developed them in their own works. One of the most famous followers of Hobbes became English scientist-materialist John Locke.
After Leviathan, Gobbs published "letters about freedom and necessity" and "questions about freedom, need and chance," where the original teachings on natural right, fear, freedom and natural law have developed.
The scientist introduced the concepts of deliberate and reckless actions, calling them a sequence of desires, and freedom was interpreted as the absence of internal and natural obstacles to decision-making. The philosopher believed that all that was happening was subject to the intervention of an external agent and could not happen in itself.
Gobbs work became a classic political philosophy and repeatedly translated into foreign languages. After the death of a scientist in England, Dialogues Between A Philosopher and A Student of The Common Laws of England and Behemoth, Or The Long Parliament, written in 1666 and 1668.
Quotes
"Natural right is freedom to do everything that, on the understanding of a person, is the most suitable for preserving his own life." "The natural law is that every person should seek peace; If he cannot achieve it, he can use any funds that give advantages in the war. "" Truth and lies the essence of the attributes of speech, not things. Where there is no speech, there is no truth, no lies. "Bibliography
- 1640 - "Elements of Law, Natural and Political"
- 1650 - "Treatise on Human Nature"
- 1651 - "Philosophical Rudiments relating to Government and Society"
- 1642-1655 - Trilogy "Fundamentals of Philosophy"
- 1651 - "Leviafan, or Matter, the form and power of the state of church and civilian"
- 1654 - "Letters about freedom and necessity"
- 1656 - "Questions about freedom, need and chance"