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Western Political Thought

Notes a world where all human beings are supposed to have rights, that is, moral claims that protect
their basic interests. But what or who determines what those rights are? And who will enforce
them? In other words, who will exercise the most important political powers, when the basic
assumption is that we all share the same entitlements?

6.1 Life Sketch

Hobbes was born on April 5, 1588. He was the second son. His birth was premature. His parents
were relatively poor. His father was a member of the clergy near Malmesburg, Wiltshire. He was
brought up by his uncle. In his younger days, he was a bright student and mastered a number of
languages. His first publication was a translation in English of Thucydides’ History of the
Peloponnesian War in 1629. Besides, just before he died, at the age of 86, he translated Homer’s
Odyssey and Iliad into English. Throughout his life he wrote verses in Latin and English. He was
a quick writer of both prose and verse, and the last 10 chapters of the Leviathan (approximately
90,000 words) were written in an amazing time-span of less than a year.

Thomas Hobbes could speak and read Latin, Greek, French, Italian and English.
While he was still a schoolboy, he translated Euripides’ Medea from Greek into Latin,
and throughout his life this continued.

Hobbes learnt scholastic logic and physics at Oxford University. He also spent time reading maps.
However, he disliked the education imparted at Oxford, dismissing scholasticism as a collection
of absurdities. After completing his education, he was recruited in 1618 into an aristocratic
household, the family of William Lord Cavendish, who came to be known as the Earl of Devonshire.
At first he was a tutor, and later became a secretary. The rest of his life was spent in the employment
of this family or its neighbours and cousins. He accompanied Lord Cavendish’s son on a grand
tour of Europe in 1610-1615. In 1630, he escorted the son of another family on a four of Europe and
in 1634-1635 he took the son of his pupil of 1610 on a journey similar to the one he had taken with
his father. These tours gave Hobbes a unique opportunity to meet both politicians and intellectuals,
enabling him to gain many new insights. He met eminent people like Galileo Galilee, Pierre
Gassendi (1592-1655) and Marin Marsenne (1588-1648). He corresponded with Descartes who was
in hiding in the Netherlands; finally the two met in 1648. Of all the places that he visited, Venice
made the most lasting impression.
For a while during the period of the Civil War in 1641 and the Thirty-Year war (1618-1648), Hobbes
had to deal with matters like horses. Interestingly, he also studied details of telescopes, which he felt
would give a decisive military advantage to the country that could innovate one. In 1634, he discussed
problems of optics and physics and subsequently met various French mathematicians and
philosophers. This led to his disassociation with conventional Aristotelian physics.

Which publication led Hobbes to his estrangement with Charles II?

By the end of 1640, Hobbes had written two drafts of philosophical works, which included
De Cive (1642). With a fear of persecution by the Long parliament for his Elements of Law, which
was a brief for his master and supporters in the debates in parliament, he fled to France in
November 1640 and stayed there till the winter of 1651-1652. The publication of the Leviathan led

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