Thomas Hobbes

A detailed Summary of Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes was born in Westport England. He was educated at Oxford University, and served as secretary to Sir Francis Bacon and as a tutor to William Cavendish, who later became Earl of Devonshire. While tutoring Cavendish, who later became Earl of Devonshire he traveled widely and came into contact with many European philosophers and scientists. This gave him great insight to many different views on government and the state.

Hobbes believed in an "atomistic" conception of society. This concept was for the individual, not the group. Hobbes rejected the Divine Right of Kings, brute as a bases of , feudal contacts, or historical traditions as a bases of political authority. Hobbes believed that society is composed of many equal individuals who pursue their private interests on the basis of their own reason. He believed that it is not natural to have one single leader who ever powered everyone else if everyone was equal.

Hobbes as a political rationalist believed in the "Social Contract" which is a agreement wich everyone makes voluntarily on the basis of a rational calculation of each person's self interest. This contract's purpose was to protect the individual against his neighbor. Hobbes believed that society need

Hobbes thought that man was not naturally good and needed a strong government to keep each person in line. He found three principle causes of quarrels: competition, diffidence, and glory. The first make men invade for gain; the second, for safety; and the third, for reputation. This theory indicates that without a government man would continuously act on these three principles and society would be in complete chaos.

John Stuart Mill was born in London and educated by his father. Mill was very intelligent, by the age of fourteen he had mastered Latin, classical literature, logic, political economy, history, and mathematics. Mill was one of Victorian England's best intellectuals and theorist of liberalism. Mill had many trades, he was a philosopher, logician, a member of parliament, a campaigner for the rights of women and a comenter on political affairs. He dealt with and wrote about the limitations on state power, with freedom of conscience and liberty of expression.

ed a strong government and because without one society would return to a natural state which under Hobbes beliefs would be chaos. By signing the social contract Hobbes believed the individual was signing away all their political power and rights to the ruler.

Mill believed that the highest aim of human life was the cultivation of one's own personality, one's uniqueness to it's highest and most harmonious expression. Thi

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Approximate Word count = 949
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: History