Thomas Hobbes

:This article is about the philosopher Thomas Hobbes. For information on the Bill Watterson comic strip featuring a tiger named Hobbes, see Calvin and Hobbes.

Civil war in England

The English Civil War broke out in 1642, and when the Royalist cause began to decline from the middle of 1644 there was an exodus of the king's supporters to Europe. Many came to Paris and were known to Hobbes. This revitalised Hobbes's political interests and the De Cive was republished and more widely distributed. The printing was begun in 1646 by Samuel de Sorbiere through the Elzevir press at Amsterdam with a new preface and some new notes in reply to objections.

Related Topics:
English Civil War - 1642 - Samuel de Sorbiere - Elzevir press - Amsterdam

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In 1647, Hobbes was engaged as mathematical instructor to the young Charles, Prince of Wales, who had come over from Jersey around July. This engagement lasted until 1648 when Charles went to Holland.

Related Topics:
1647 - Charles, Prince of Wales - Jersey - 1648

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The company of the exiled royalists led Hobbes to produce an English book to set forth his theory of civil government in relation to the political crisis resulting from the war. It was based on an unpublished treatise of 1640. The State, it now seemed to Hobbes, might be regarded as a great artificial man or monster (Leviathan), composed of men, with a life that might be traced from its generation under pressure of human needs to its dissolution through civil strife proceeding from human passions. The work was closed with a general "Review and Conclusion," in direct response to the war which raised the question of the subject's right to change allegiance when a former sovereign's power to protect was irrecoverably gone. Also he took advantage of the Commonwealth to indulge in rationalistic criticism of religious doctrines. The first public edition was titled Elementa philosophica de cive.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

During the years of the composition of Leviathan he remained in or near Paris. In 1647 Hobbes was overtaken by a serious illness which disabled him for six months. On recovering from this near fatal disorder, he resumed his literary task, and carried it steadily forward to completion by the year 1650, having also translated his prior Latin work into English. In 1650, to prepare the way for his magnum opus, he allowed the publication of his earliest treatise, divided into two separate small volumes (Human Nature, or the Fundamental Elements of Policie, and De corpore politico, or the Elements of Law, Moral and Politick). In 1651 he published his translation of the De Cive under the title of Philosophical Rudiments concerning Government and Society. Meanwhile the printing of the greater work was proceeding, and finally it appeared about the middle of 1651, under the title of Leviathan, or the Matter, Form and Power of a Commonwealth, Ecclesiastical and Civil, with a famous frontpiece in which, from behind hills overlooking a landscape, there towered the body (above the waist) of a crowned giant, made up of tiny figures of human beings and bearing sword and crozier in the two hands.

Related Topics:
1650 - Magnum opus - Human Nature, or the Fundamental Elements of Policie - De corpore politico, or the Elements of Law, Moral and Politick - 1651 - De Cive - Leviathan, or the Matter, Form and Power of a Commonwealth, Ecclesiastical and Civil

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The work had immediate impact. Soon, Hobbes was more lauded and decried than any other thinker of his time. However, the first effect of its publication was to sever his link with the exiled royalists, forcing him to appeal to the revolutionary English government for protection. The exiles may very well have killed him; the secularist spirit of his book greatly angered both Anglicans and French Catholics. Hobbes fled back home, arriving in London in the winter of 1651. Following his submission to the council of state he was allowed to subside into private life in Fetter Lane.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~