Thomas Hobbes
Thomas Hobbes was an English philosopher, mathematician, and linguist. Hobbes was born of an impoverished clerical family in Malmesbury, Wiltshire. At school he quickly excelled, making a reputation as a linguist and fluent poet and translator. After Oxford he entered the employment of William Cavendish, and except for a short interval remained secretary, tutor, and general advisor to the family for the rest of his career. His employment included several "Grand Tours" during which he met the leading European intellectuals of his time. As a spokesman for the royalist Devonshires, Hobbes was caught up in the turmoil preceding the Civil War, and fled to France in 1640, remaining there until 1651. Because of his writings, especially Leviathan, Hobbes lived in serious danger of prosecution after the restoration of Charles II. Hobbes's principal interests in his later years were translations, and he lived out his old age at the Devonshire's home. Throughout all his works Hobbes is completely consistent on the point that the laws of nature are the principles of reason and, they are concerned with self-preservation. But the principles of reason that Hobbes discusses as the laws of nature are not concerned with the preservation o
In conclusion Hobbes argues that the state can never be unjust and that there cannot be unjust laws. What is moral and immoral is determined by what leads to lasting peace, which is the preservation of one's life.The existence of the state is determined by,what is just and unjust by the laws of the state. Justifying that, it is immoral to hold that the sovereign can act unjustly, for to hold this is contrary to the stability of the state and to lasting peace and preservation of one's life. f particular persons but, as Hobbes puts it, with 'the conservation of men in multitudes'. These are the principles of reason that concern the threats to life that come from war and civil discord. The goal of these principles is peace. It is these laws of nature that Hobbes holds provide an objective basis for moral obligations. "Reason declaring peace to be good, it follows by the same reason, that all the necessary means to peace be good also; and therefore that modesty, equity, trust, humanity, mercy are good manners or habits, that is, virtues." Hobbes, considers moral obligations as applying to manners or habits. This statement allows Hobbes to regard courage, prudence, and temperance as personal virtues, because they lead to the preservation of the individual person who has them, and distinguishing them from the moral virtues, by leading to peace, lead to the preservation of everyone. This account of reason as seeking self-preservation provides a justification of both the personal and the moral obligations. The personal virtues are directly consistent with self-preservation, and the moral obligations are determinants to peace and a stable society, which are essential for lasting preservation. The attempt to join self-interest and morality is as successful as it is because of the limited view Hobbes takes of the go
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Approximate Word count = 1229
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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