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.

Early life and education

Hobbes was born in Malmesbury, Wiltshire, England on April 5, 1588. His father, the vicar of Charlton and Westport, was forced to leave the town, abandoning his three children to the care of an older brother Francis. Hobbes was educated at Westport church from the age of four, passed to the Malmesbury school and then to a private school kept by a young man named Robert Latimer, a graduate from Oxford University. Hobbes was a good pupil, and around 1603 he was sent to Oxford and entered at Magdalen Hall (see Hertford College). The principal of Magdalen was the aggressive Puritan John Wilkinson, and he had some influence on Hobbes.

Related Topics:
Malmesbury - Wiltshire - England - April 5 - 1588 - Vicar - Charlton - Westport - Oxford University - Hertford College - Puritan - John Wilkinson

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At university, Hobbes appears to have followed his own curriculum; he was "little attracted by the scholastic learning". He did not complete his degree until 1608, but he was recommended by Wilkinson as tutor to William, the son of William Cavendish, Baron of Hardwick (and later Earl of Devonshire), and began a lifelong connection with that family.

Related Topics:
1608 - William Cavendish - Earl of Devonshire

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Hobbes became a companion to the younger William and they both took part in a grand tour in 1610. Hobbes was exposed to European scientific and critical methods during the tour in contrast to the scholastic philosophy which he had learned in Oxford. His scholarly efforts at the time were aimed at a careful study of classic Greek and Latin authors, the outcome of which was, in 1628, his great translation of Thucydides's History of the Peloponnesian War, the first translation of that work into English. Hobbes believed that Thucydides' account of the Peloponnesian War showed that democratic government could not survive war or provide stability and was thus undesirable.

Related Topics:
1610 - Scholastic philosophy - 1628 - Thucydides - History of the Peloponnesian War - English - Peloponnesian War

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Although he associated with literary figures like Ben Jonson and thinkers such as Francis Bacon he did not extend his efforts into philosophy until after 1629. His employer Cavendish, then the Earl of Devonshire, died of the plague in June 1628. The widowed countess dismissed Hobbes but he soon found work, again a tutor, this time to the son of Sir Gervase Clifton. This task, chiefly spent in Paris, ended in 1631 when he again found work with the Cavendish family, tutoring the son of his previous pupil. Over the next seven years as well as tutoring he expanded his own knowledge of philosophy, awakening in him curiosity over key philosophic debates. He visited Florence in 1636 and later was a regular debater in philosophic groups in Paris, held together by Marin Mersenne. From 1637 he considered himself a philosopher.

Related Topics:
Ben Jonson - Francis Bacon - 1629 - Plague - 1631 - Florence - 1636 - Marin Mersenne - 1637

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