Page 93 - DPOL201_WESTERN_POLITICAL_THOUGHT_ENGLISH

Rosy Hastir, Lovely Professional University
Amandeep Singh, Lovely Professional University
Unit 6: Thomas Hobbes

Unit 6: Thomas Hobbes Notes

CONTENTS
Objectives
Introduction
6.1 Life Sketch
6.2 Developments in Science and their Influence on Hobbes
6.3 Hobbes’ Political Philosophy
6.4 Human Nature
6.5 Women and the Gender Question
6.6 Summary
6.7 Key-Words
6.8 Review Questions
6.9 Further Readings

Objectives
After studying this unit students will be able to:
• Discuss Individualism
• Understand Social Contract
• Explain Hobbes’ Political Philosophy
• Know the theory of women and the Gender Question.

Introduction

Thomas Hobbes, in some older texts Thomas Hobbs of Malmsbury, was an English philosopher,
remembered today for his work on political philosophy. His 1651 book Leviathan established the
foundation for most of Western political philosophy from the perspective of social contract theory.
The English philosopher Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) is best known for his political thought, and
deservedly so. His vision of the world is strikingly original and still relevant to contemporary
politics. His main concern is the problem of social and political order: how human beings can live
together in peace and avoid the danger and fear of civil conflict. He poses stark alternatives: we
should give our obedience to an unaccountable sovereign (a person or group empowered to
decide every social and political issue). Otherwise what awaits us is a “state of nature” that closely
resembles civil war-a situation of universal insecurity, where all have reason to fear violent death
and where rewarding human cooperation is all but impossible.
Hobbes is the founding father of modern political philosophy. Directly or indirectly, he has set the
terms of debate about the fundamentals of political life right into our own times. Few have liked
his thesis, that the problems of political life mean that a society should accept an unaccountable
sovereign as its sole political authority. Nonetheless, we still live in the world that Hobbes addressed
head on: a world where human authority is something that requires justification, and is
automatically accepted by few; a world where social and political inequality also appears
questionable; and a world where religious authority faces significant dispute. We can put the
matter in terms of the concern with equality and rights that Hobbes’s thought heralded: we live in

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