Works of Hobbes. Biography of Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes. Born 5 April 1588 in Malmesbury, Wiltshire, Kingdom of England - died 4 December 1679 in Derbyshire. English materialist philosopher, one of the founders of the theory of social contract and the theory of state sovereignty. Known for ideas that have gained currency in disciplines such as ethics, theology, physics, geometry and history.

Born in Gloucestershire, in the family of a poorly educated, hot-tempered parish priest, who lost his job due to a quarrel with a neighboring vicar at the door of the church. He was raised by a wealthy uncle. Knew well ancient literature and classical languages. At fifteen he entered Oxford University, graduating in 1608.

In 1608 he became tutor to William, eldest son of William Cavendish, Baron Hardwick (later first Earl of Devonshire). Until the end of his life he supported close connection with his student, who became his patron. Thanks to him, he met Ben Jonson, Francis Bacon, Herbert Charbercy and other outstanding people. After the death in 1628 of William Cavendish (who inherited the title of Earl of Devonshire in 1626), Hobbes receives the position of mentor to the son of Sir Gervase Clifton, and then raises the son of his old patron, Cavendish, with whom he travels through Italy (where in 1636 he meets).

The formation of Hobbes's views was significantly influenced by Galileo Galilei, P. Gassendi, and I. Kepler.

Hobbes created the first complete system of mechanistic materialism, consistent with the nature and requirements of natural science of that time. In a polemic with Descartes, he rejected the existence of a special thinking substance, proving that a thinking thing is something material. For Hobbes, geometry and mechanics are ideal examples of scientific thinking in general. Nature appears to Hobbes as a collection of extended bodies that differ in size, shape, position and movement. Movement is understood as mechanistic - as displacement. Sensible qualities are considered by Hobbes not as properties of the things themselves, but as forms of their perception. Hobbes distinguished between extension, which is actually inherent in bodies, and space as an image created by the mind (“phantasma”); objectively real movement of bodies and time as a subjective image of movement. Hobbes distinguished two methods of knowledge: the logical deduction of rationalistic “mechanics” and the induction of empirical “physics”.

Hobbes is one of the founders of the “contractual” theory of the origin of the state.

Like most political thinkers after Bodin, Hobbes distinguishes only three forms of state: democracy, aristocracy and monarchy. He does not approve of democracy because, for example, “the mob is inaccessible great wisdom“And in democracy, parties arise, which leads to civil war. Aristocracy is better, but the more perfect it is, the less it resembles popular government and the more it approaches monarchy. The best form of state is a monarchy; it more than any other corresponds to the ideal of absolute and undivided power.

Hobbes views the state as the result of a contract between people, putting an end to the natural pre-state state of “war of all against all.” He adhered to the principle of the original equality of people. People were created by the Creator as equal physically and intellectually, they have equal opportunities and the same, unlimited “rights to everything,” and they also have free will. Individual citizens voluntarily limited their rights and freedom in favor of the state, whose task is to ensure peace and security. Hobbes does not claim that all states arose by contract. To achieve supreme power, in his opinion, there are two ways - physical force (conquest, subjugation) and voluntary agreement. The first type of state is called acquisition-based, and the second is establishment-based, or political state.

Hobbes adheres to the principle of legal positivism and extols the role of the state, which he recognizes as the absolute sovereign. On the question of the forms of the state, Hobbes' sympathies are on the side of the monarchy. Defending the need to subordinate the church to the state, he considered it necessary to preserve religion as an instrument of state power to curb the people.

Hobbes' ethics is based on the unchangeable sensory "nature of man." Hobbes considered the basis of morality to be “natural law” - the desire for self-preservation and satisfaction of needs. Hobbes's main and most fundamental natural law instructs every person to strive for peace while there is hope of achieving it. The Second Natural Law provides that if other people consent, a person must renounce the right to things to the extent necessary in the interests of peace and self-defense. A short third follows from the second natural law: people must fulfill the agreements they make. Other natural laws ( total number 19) can, according to Hobbes, be summarized in one simple rule: “do not do to others what you do not want them to do to you.”

Virtues are conditioned by a reasonable understanding of what promotes and what hinders the achievement of good. Moral duty in its content coincides with civil responsibilities arising from the social contract.

Major works of Thomas Hobbes:

The Elements of Law, Natural and Political (1640)
Treatise on Human Nature (1650)
Philosophical Rudiments concerning Government and Society (publication English translation from Latin "De Cive" (1651)
Philosophical trilogy “Fundamentals of Philosophy”: “About the Body” (1655); “About Man” (1658); “About the Citizen” (1642)
“Leviathan, or Matter, the form and power of the state, ecclesiastical and civil” (1651, Russian translation - 1936)
Letters upon Liberty and Necessity (1654)
The Questions concerning Liberty, Necessity and Chance(1656)

Philosophical views of T. Hobbes

I. Introduction.

I.I Life of T. Hobbes

Hobbes's philosophical system

II.II Philosophy of Nature

II.III Theory of knowledge

II.IV Morals and Law

II.V Doctrine of the State

II.VI Doctrine of Religion

II.VII Doctrine of Man

III. Conclusion

IV. Literature

Introduction

I.I Life of T. Hobbes

Historians of philosophy and natural sciences call the 17th century the century of geniuses. At the same time, they mean the many brilliant thinkers who then worked in the field of science, laid the foundation of modern natural science and, in comparison with previous centuries, far advanced the natural sciences, especially philosophy. In the constellation of their names, the primary place belongs to the name of the English philosopher, creator of the system of mechanical materialism, Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679), who was a champion of natural scientific methodology and considered human behavior and psyche to be completely subordinate to the laws of mechanics.

Thomas Hobbes was born on April 5, 1566 in Malmesbury, in the family of a priest. Already in childhood he showed outstanding abilities and talent. At school he mastered the ancient languages ​​well - Latin and Greek. At the age of fifteen, Hobbes entered Oxford University, where scholastic philosophy was taught. Having received his bachelor's degree, he began lecturing on logic. Soon he has the opportunity to make a long trip around Europe. His stay in Paris coincides with one major event that shook France at that time and which undoubtedly made a strong impression on Hobbes: the murder of Henry IV by Ravaillac. This event directed Hobbes's attention towards political issues; it makes him think especially about the role of the church in its relationship to the state. He spent three whole years in France and Italy, where he had the opportunity to get acquainted with new directions and trends philosophical thought. Convinced of the complete uselessness of scholastic metaphysics for life, Hobbes abandoned his studies in logic and physics and turned to the study of classical antiquity. He devotes himself to the study of Greek and Latin authors, philosophers, poets, and historians. The result of these studies was a brilliant translation (1628) into English language the great ancient historian Thucydides. This was the first literary work of the future philosopher, who, however, was already forty-one years old. His personal acquaintance with F. Bacon dates back to the same time, with whom he maintained friendly relations, but philosophical worldview, which did not satisfy him. By the time they met, Bacon had published his main methodological work, The New Organon (1620).

In 1629, Hobbes made a second trip to the continent, which turned out to be more fruitful for him in its results. He accidentally became acquainted with Euclid's Elements, and this circumstance gave him an impetus in the sense of understanding the usefulness and expediency of the mathematical method. Hobbes came up with the idea of ​​the possibility and necessity of using mathematical method in the field of philosophy. Hobbes's cherished dream was to study, first of all, social problems, the nature of law and the state, but it was precisely for the study of these objects that it was necessary to find a new method. Having met Euclid, he decided that the social relations of people should be studied geometric method .

The third trip to the continent was of decisive importance in terms of the complete formulation of Hobbes's views. In Florence, he met the greatest scientist and physicist of that time - Galileo. On this trip, Hobbes made a new conquest - the subject of his interest becomes traffic problem. This is how the individual elements of his philosophical system took shape: it was based on body movement, which was to be studied using geometric method .

In 1637 he returned to his homeland. In 1640 he published his first political work, “Fundamentals of Philosophy.” This work aims to protect the unlimited rights of the supreme power, i.e. king. After the publication of the book, Hobbes realized that it was unsafe for him to remain in England any longer, and he decided to leave for France in advance.

Hobbes's last long stay in France played a huge role in his philosophical activity. Here he became acquainted with the scientific and philosophical ideas of R. Descartes, which were becoming increasingly widespread. Hobbes wrote on the manuscript given to him the most important philosophical work Descartes - “Metaphysical Reflections”, his work “Objections” from a sensualist-materialist position. The controversy with Descartes contributed to Hobbes's development of an original and coherent system of philosophical views. But his main interest was still focused on social issues, which remained most relevant for England, where the revolution and civil war began. This explains why Hobbes began the promulgation of his system with its third part, which he called “On the Citizen” (1642). The work “About the Citizen” was to be preceded by two other parts: “About the body” and “About man”. But political events in England forced him to rush to publish the third part of the system. The great civil war in his homeland, which lasted from 1642 and ended with the complete victory of the Republican party, led by Oliver Cromwell, and the execution of King Charles I in 1649, forced Hobbes to devote almost all his attention political problems. In 1651, Hobbes's most famous work, Leviathan, or Matter, the Form and Power of the State, Ecclesiastical and Civil, was published in London. Leviathan was intended by Hobbes as an apology for the absolute power of the state. The title of the book itself serves this purpose. The state is likened to the biblical monster, about which the book of Job says that there is nothing stronger in the world than it. Hobbes, in his own words, sought to “raise the authority of civil power,” to emphasize with renewed vigor the priority of the state over the church and the need to transform religion into the prerogative of state power.

Soon after this came out works of Hobbes moved to London, where Cromwell celebrated victory both over the royalists and over the revolutionary elements of the masses. He welcomed Hobbes's return. Here in his homeland, the philosopher completed the presentation of his system, publishing the essay “On the Body” in 1655, and in 1658. essay "About Man". Three main works: “About the Body”, “About Man” and “About the Citizen”, distinguished by the unity of concept and execution, bear a common title - “the foundations of philosophy”. Having been carried out for many years, the philosophical system was completed in all parts. Hobbes was already a very old man.

The Republic fell and the era of restoration began. On May 25, 1660, Charles II made his ceremonial entry into London. During the years of the restoration of the monarchy, Hobbes experienced very difficult times. The philosopher was persecuted, accusing him, first of all, of atheism - a very common and dangerous accusation in those days. "On the Citizen" and "Leviathan" were included by the Catholic clergy in the list of prohibited books.

The author of Leviathan was declared an atheist. The persecution of the philosopher began. Royalists accused Hobbes of denying the divine nature of the power of monarchs and royal prerogatives. They could not forgive him for calling for obedience to the republic.

Leviathan was banned in England. In 1668, Hobbes wrote an essay called “Behemoth,” or “The Long Parliament.” "Behemoth" represents the history of revolutionary times. Only ten years later it was possible to publish this work in an abbreviated form.

Three years after the death of the philosopher, Oxford University issued a decree against harmful books and false ideas that have a destructive effect on the state and human society. In this decree, pride of place was given to “On the Citizen” and “Leviathan,” which, a few days after the publication of the decree, were solemnly burned in the square in front of a large crowd of public. Thus, the restoration honored the memory of the great thinker.

Hobbes died on December 4, 1679, at the age of 91, having retained spiritual and physical vigor until the end of his long life. life path. He began his literary and philosophical career as a fully mature man, but he carried on this work continuously for fifty years.

II Hobbes' philosophical system

II.I Subject and method of philosophy

Thomas Hobbes made enormous contributions to science and philosophy. In his work “On the Body,” the English thinker managed to most fully reveal his understanding of the subject of philosophy. Answering the question “what is philosophy,” Hobbes, like other leading thinkers of his era, opposed scholasticism, which existed as official philosophy christian church in most Western European countries.

Having adopted the Aristotelian position, who believed that form imparts qualitative certainty to matter and forms from it one or another real thing, scholasticism tore form away from material things, turned it into an ideal essence, and identified it with the divine mind.

Despite the fact that Hobbes is considered a follower of the theory of F. Bacon, whom K. Marx and F. Engels called “the real founder of English materialism and all modern experimental science,” Hobbes himself considers the founders new philosophy Copernicus, the creator of new astronomy, Galileo, who laid the foundation of mechanics, Kepler, who developed and substantiated the theory of Copernicus, and Harvey, who discovered the theory of blood circulation and laid the foundations of the science of organisms. If Hobbes does not count Bacon among the founders of the new science, it is because his method is so different from Bacon’s that he was not even able to appreciate the merits of the latter. His new method, the “new logic,” as Bacon himself calls it, is not recognized by Hobbes. “Bacon is a concrete materialist, and Hobbes is an abstract, i.e. mechanical, or mathematical, materialist,” wrote L. Feuerbach.

Thomas Hobbes is an English thinker. He considered natural human reason to be the source of philosophy, and therefore strictly separated it from religion, based on the authority of Holy Scripture. Philosophy, in his opinion, should be scientific, reliable knowledge and bring practical benefit to man and society. In his works (“On the Body”, “On Man”, “Leviathan”) Hobbes examines the problems scientific knowledge and language, human nature and the rational structure of the state. The philosopher became famous for his socio-political theory, which has not lost its relevance today.

The essence and purpose of philosophy

According to Hobbes, the subject of philosophy is bodies, the origin and properties of which can be known. In accordance with the classification of bodies into natural (natural bodies and humans) and artificial (state), he identified natural philosophy (philosophy of nature) and civil (moral and political philosophy). Hobbes excludes from philosophy theology and any doctrine of incorporeal entities, as well as poorly founded doctrines (for example, astrology) and “knowledge of fact” (natural and political history). Philosophy is theoretical, substantiated and true knowledge, “achieved through correct reasoning.” Geometry should serve as a model for it. The thinker saw the purpose of philosophy in foreseeing the results of our actions, primarily in social and political life. The ultimate goal of philosophy is to accurately determine the measure of justice in the state, which should be established by reasonable laws. After all, following them ensures stability and peace in society, and ignorance of them leads to civil war.

Doctrine of knowledge

By nature, man, like animals, receives knowledge through sensory perception and memory. However, as higher sentient being, he is capable of reasoning. Through reasoning, a person comes to reliable, scientific knowledge. The ability to reason, according to Hobbes, is not given by nature, but is developed through diligence.

Initially, thoughts arise as a result of sensation, but they cannot be retained in memory for long. Therefore, people began to designate them with names (words). The connection of names forms speech. Names act as marks for remembering thoughts, and as signs for communicating and clarifying thoughts to other people. Marks are significant only for ourselves, and signs are significant for others. Names do not follow from the nature of things, but are given to things arbitrarily. Therefore, the name reflects our idea of ​​a thing, and not the thing itself. This theory of the origin of language is called conventional, i.e. negotiable. All things are individual, but the names that relate to them are universal (tree, table, horse, etc. - except for proper names). Hobbes comes out from the position of nominalism, considering only individual things to really exist, and general concepts- only names.

Combinations of names form statements, and statements according to the laws of logic are combined into reasoning. Reliable, i.e. scientific knowledge obtained through correct reasoning. Science must come from correct definitions names, which are first principles that do not need proof, and go further, establishing “the consistent dependence of one statement on another.” Hobbes calls reasoning calculus, which boils down to adding and subtracting a sequence of names. Thus, true knowledge achieved through correct reasoning, and is knowledge of the sequence of names, not the sequence of things. “The truth can only be in what is said, and not in the things themselves.” In this case, truth is determined by the correctness of the statement and is a property of speech, not of things.

Scientific knowledge, according to Hobbes, can be obtained by two ways of reasoning, or methods: 1) knowledge of consequences based on a reliably known cause (as in geometry); 2) knowledge of the cause based on experimentally established consequences (as in empirical physics). However, Hobbes prefers the first method because “it is more valuable to know how we can make use of the reasons available.” Hobbes views knowledge from the point of view of practical use. Philosophy should “promote the good of the human race” by ensuring stability and peace in society. In this regard, it becomes clear why the most important part of Hobbes's teaching is political philosophy.

Civic philosophy

Hobbes conceived civil philosophy as a science about an artificial body (state) in the image of Galilean physics. Imitating nature, people created an artificial man - the state, or Leviathan (biblical monster, mortal God, to whom people owe their peace and protection). In his work of the same name, Hobbes comprehends the nature of man, the origin of the state and its proper organization.

Political philosophy, according to Hobbes, should be based on knowledge of human nature. What is the most significant thing about it? People are naturally equal in terms of mental and physical abilities. They are selfish and vain, striving for power, fame and pleasure. The highest good for a person is life and health, and evil is death. Therefore, a person has a natural right to use any means to preserve his own life. Otherwise, good and evil are relative, because for everyone they are different depending on his character, habits and way of thinking. “It follows from this that the science of the morality of man as such, taken outside the state organization, cannot be built, because there is no definite measure for virtues and vices.” Only in the state there is such a measure - these are civil laws. Virtue, or justice, consists in obeying laws, and vice, or injustice, in breaking them.

In the natural state of society, before the formation of the state, everyone has absolute freedom and has the right to everything, because of which people’s interests constantly collide. Rivalry, mistrust and thirst for glory are the reasons why people are in a state of “war of all against all.” No one has any guarantees of safety, everyone relies on themselves. However, the sense of self-preservation, the desire for well-being and the hope of acquiring it through their labor incline people towards peace. The conditions of the world suggest to a person the dictates of reason, or natural laws, according to which “it is forbidden to do what is detrimental to his life and that deprives him of the means to preserve it, and to neglect what he considers the best means for preserving life.” Hobbes identifies two basic natural laws: 1) the desire for peace and following it; 2) renunciation of the right to everything, i.e. limitation by everyone of their freedom to the extent necessary for peaceful existence. The rest of natural laws can be reduced to the rule “do not do to others what you would not wish for yourself.” These are unchanging and eternal moral laws bequeathed to people by God. The divine covenants “contain the foundation of all justice and all civil obedience.”

However, without power to keep people in fear and under threat of punishment, everyone cannot be forced to follow natural laws. Therefore, people enter into a social contract among themselves, which is a “mutual transfer of rights.” This occurs by the people giving up some of their natural rights and transferring them to an elected person (a person or an assembly) called the sovereign. Every man makes the sovereign his representative, and thereby acknowledges all his actions and judgments as his own. Therefore, no act of the sovereign can be unlawful, he cannot be tried, executed or overthrown. The people vest the sovereign with supreme power to compel them to fulfill the treaty and direct their actions towards the common good. Using power and force, the sovereign must bring all the wills of citizens into one single will and direct it to preserve inner world and protection from external enemies. Such a real unity of people, embodied in one person, is called a state. "The state is one person, the action of which a great multitude of people have made themselves responsible by mutual agreement among themselves, so that that person may use the power and means of all of them as he shall think necessary for the peace and common defense.”

Since the sovereign himself is not bound by treaty, he retains everything natural rights and freedom, and has absolute, indivisible power. He concentrates in his hands the legislative, judicial and executive powers, has the non-transferable and indivisible rights to declare war and make peace, reward and punish, prohibit opinions and teachings (the right of censorship). The church must be subordinate to the state. The dictates of religion, which serve as the basis of morality, should be carried out as law. In turn, “divine law commands us to obey higher authorities, i.e. laws established by the supreme rulers." As for citizens, they are completely obedient to the sovereign and must follow the civil laws (which include natural laws). The freedom of citizens extends only to actions about which the law is silent. However, if there is a threat to his own life, a citizen may not obey the sovereign, because the right to defend one's life is inalienable.

So, according to Hobbes, philosophy, which he actually equated with science, cognizes the causes, origin and properties of material (natural and artificial) bodies. Reliable knowledge regarding these subjects can be achieved through correct reasoning, which comes down to establishing connections and dependencies between judgments (i.e. rationally). However, “knowledge is only the path to power.” It should bring practical benefits to people, and, first of all, ensure the creation of a strong state.

Hobbes considered the reason for the emergence of the state to be the voluntary conclusion of a social contract between people to establish supreme power in order to ensure peace and security. Hobbes' "social contract theory" as a theory of the natural origin of the state played and continues to play a large role in the development of social theory. For a state to be strong, state power must be absolute. Only such power will be able to ensure justice in society, which, according to the thinker, lies in the observance of laws. Following the laws leads to the preservation of peace, but ignorance and violation of them leads to civil war. Indeed, strong government can unite people into a single whole, provide them labor activity and well-being, protect from external enemies. However, the concentration of absolute power in one hand and the lack of opportunity for citizens to influence their representative are very dangerous. The proof of this is the totalitarian regimes of all times, as history has shown.

Hobbes's ideas about the artificial origin of language and its symbolic nature, about the importance of clarity of language in science and philosophy were far ahead of their time and were revived again in the twentieth century.

Materialism of the 17th century received further development and systematization in the work of Thomas Hobbes. He was a representative of nominalism and empiricism of epistemology, although some elements of rationalism are also evident in his teaching. He emphasized that there is not a single concept in the human mind that would not initially exist in the sense organs.

Being a representative of the advanced philosophy of his time, Hobbes opposed the church and religious scholasticism and set as his goal the creation of a philosophy identical to natural to the human mind and capable of teaching people correct thinking. He considered mathematics to be a model of knowledge and argued that only it is capable of providing the necessary reliable and universal knowledge.

Philosophy, according to Hobbes, “is innate to every person, for everyone, to a certain extent, reasons about some things.” By reasoning he means calculus, since to calculate means to find the sum of things added or to determine the remainder when subtracting something from another. This means that reasoning is the same as adding and subtracting. Thus, Hobbes's logic coincides with mathematics, and thinking with counting techniques.

Hobbes distinguished between two types of knowledge:

1) knowledge delivered by sensation and memory and giving us only knowledge of a fact

2) scientific knowledge, which is “knowledge of the connections and dependencies of facts.

At the center of philosophy, Hobbes places the concept of body, which is understood as something that has properties that is subject to creation and destruction. Based on this understanding of the body, he identifies philosophy has two parts:

- philosophy of nature (covers natural objects and phenomena)

- philosophy of state ( artificial bodies that arise due to human will, by virtue of the contract and agreement of people. )

Hobbes is one of those philosophers who, creating a comprehensive philosophical system, highlighted one main problem - the problem of the state. While solving it, he expressed a number of new ideas about man and society.

· that people, trying to get out of natural state, create a state on the basis of a social contract.

· The state is a kind of artificial body, a mechanism living an artificial life. Its main goal is to take care of the well-being of citizens.

· The state was understood by him as the only form of existence of society.

· The state, as a guarantor of peace, gives every person the opportunity to realize his rights (to life, security, etc.), which are given to him by nature. Thomas Hobbes was a supporter of strong absolute government power.

Hobbes views man as both a natural and a moral being. He mechanically compared man as a natural body and the state as an artificial body.

The soul of the state is the supreme power; its joints are the judicial and executive bodies; nerves - rewards and punishments; memory - advisors; reason - justice and laws; health - civil peace; illness - turmoil; death - civil war. Based on the principles of “human nature,” he explained social life.

According to Hobbes, during historical development the natural equality of people is replaced by inequality. This is facilitated by the emergence of property due to the development of labor.

* man has an inherently evil nature;

* driving force human actions are personal gain and selfishness, passions, needs, affects;

* these qualities lead to every person’s awareness of the right to everything;

* the right of every person to everything and disregard for the interests of others leads to a “war of all against all,” in which there can be no winner and which makes normal life together people and economic progress;

* in order to survive together, people concluded social (joint) contract, in which they limited their claims and “the right of all to everything”;

* to prevent the “war of all against all”, to suppress extreme egoism, a common institution (mechanism) arose to regulate life in society - state;

* in order to effectively perform its very difficult functions, the state must become omnipotent;

* the state is an unshakable, multi-faceted, all-powerful monster - “Leviathan”, which “devours and sweeps away everything in its path” - a force that cannot be resisted, but which is necessary to maintain the viability of society, order and justice in it.

The philosopher distinguishes 2 states in the development of society - natural and civil. Thomas Hobbes characterizes the natural as a war of all against all, so there is an urgent need to move to a civil state. A sign of civil status is the presence of strong centralized power. The laws of the state, according to Hobbes, should limit the freedoms of people (renunciation of part of their rights in favor of the state).

T. Hobbes believed that a person realizes knowledge mainly thanks to sensory perception. Sensory perception-- this is the reception by the senses (eyes, ears, etc.) of signals from the surrounding world and their subsequent processing. T. Hobbes calls these signals “signs” and gives them the following classification:

* signals - sounds made by animals to express their actions or intentions (the “singing” of birds, the growling of predators, meowing, etc.);

* tags -- various signs, invented by man for communication;

* natural signs - “signals” of nature (thunder, lightning, clouds, etc.);

* arbitrary communicative signs - words of different languages;

* signs in the role of “tags” - special “coded” speech, understandable to few (scientific language, religious language, jargon, etc.);

* signs of signs - names of names - universals (general concepts). As a method of knowledge, T. Hobbes advocated the simultaneous use of both induction and deduction.

The philosopher wrote many works on mathematics, history, physics, and philosophy, including works such as: “ Brief treatise on first principles”, treatise “Principles of Law, Natural and Political”. This treatise was published in two parts - “ Human nature" and "On the body politic", "Questions concerning freedom, necessity and chance", "Six lessons for professors of mathematics at Oxford University", "Dialogues on physics, or on the nature of air", "Mr. Hobbes from the point of view of his loyalty, faith, reputation and behavior”, “Hippopotamus, or the Long Parliament”, “Dialogues between a philosopher and a student common law England" and other works. His main works are considered to be:

· Philosophical trilogy “Fundamentals of Philosophy”

1. “About the body”

2. "About Man"

3. "About the Citizen"

· “Leviathan, or Matter, the form and power of the state, ecclesiastical and civil.”

Thomas Hobbes was born when the victorious English fleet sank the Spanish Great Armada, and England began to turn into the mistress of the seas for three hundred years. And in subsequent years, Hobbes was a contemporary of the major political events of the 17th century - the English Revolution, the execution of King Stuart I, the Civil War, Cromwell's Protectorate and the Stuart Restoration. After graduating from university, where he studied mainly theology and ancient philosophy, Hobbes became a tutor in the family of Earl Cavendish. Together with his pupil, he visits continental Europe several times, in particular France, Italy and Switzerland.

In 1640, Hobbes published his first work on social and political issues, entitled “Elements of Laws,” in which he proved himself to be a strong defender of the monarchy. In the early 40s, he emigrated to France, where he published the work “On the Citizen” (1642). But Hobbes's main philosophical and political work is called "Leviathan""(1651), and in it Hobbes appears as a supporter of strong monarchical power. At the same time, in this work he criticizes representatives of the royalist emigration, in particular the clergy. After breaking with the royalists, he returns to England, where Cromwell is in power. It was here that his works “On the Body” (1655) and “On Man” (1658) appeared, which complement the treatise “On the Citizen”. These works present the main philosophical ideas Hobbes. During the years of the Stuart restoration, Hobbes lived aloof from politics; no one was interested in his works. Hobbes was one of the first to try to extend the principles of mechanistic natural science to the understanding of society, which for him turns out to be the “political body.”

Hobbes sees in the world around us diverse interactions of physical bodies that occur according to purely mechanical laws. The world, from his point of view, is matter, or rather, material bodies in motion. And this kind of movement is easy to predict scientifically. In the same mechanistic way, Hobbes describes the life activity of living beings, including humans, whose heart is like a spring, nerves are like threads, and joints are like wheels. And all this imparts movement to our body, like a machine. As for the human psyche, Hobbes considered its driving force to be the natural desire to survive.

Hobbes sees human egoism as a completely natural state, which he precisely identifies it with freedom. And he characterizes the obstacles that arise on the path of freedom so understood as a necessity. In fact, what Hobbes calls freedom is nothing more than arbitrariness, analogues of which exist in the surrounding living nature. However, Hobbes does not see within the individual the ability to resist selfishness. In contrast to Socrates and then Kant, for whom morality is the real antipode of egoism within a person, Hobbes recognizes not an internal, but only an external constraint on egoism, associated with the power of the state. The following original statement by Hobbes about the power of selfish interests and their role in the life of society is widely known. In Leviathan he writes that “if the truth that the three angles of a triangle are equal to the two angles of a square were contrary to anyone's right to power or to the interests of those who already hold power, then, since it was in the power of those whose interests are affected by this truth, the teaching of geometry would be, if not disputed, then supplanted by the burning of all books on geometry.” Regarding the work “Leviathan”, this prediction of Hobbes was completely justified.

Originality political views Hobbes is determined by the fact that he lived in an era of civil strife and intense political struggle. Under these conditions, Hobbes relies on strong state power. Moreover, he tries to give his theoretical justification for monarchy as the best form of government. The basis of Hobbes's political views is social contract theory, in which he again proceeds from the “natural state” of people, in which he goes “ war of all against all". Mutual enmity between people, Hobbes believes, does not mean that a person is inherently evil. In his opinion, it testifies to the original natural desire of people for their own benefit and self-preservation, and as a result, by nature, “man is a wolf to man.” But in the pre-state state, people are not only selfish, but also intelligent enough to conclude a social contract among themselves. The consequence of such an agreement is the state as a force that prevents mutual hostility between people. Comparing the state created in this way with the biblical monster Leviathan, Hobbes explains his unlimited power not so much by law as by force. And it is best, Hobbes believes, when the will of citizens is concentrated in the hands of one person. So, for example, the sovereign is above the law, because he creates it himself. His autocracy, which is translated from Greek precisely as “autocracy,” stems from the ability to overcome the discord and strife of private individuals by force. Hobbes does not reject legal laws, but considers them a tool in the hands of the ruler.

The monarch, according to Hobbes, is the soul of state power, thanks to which it acquires a strong-willed beginning. At the same time, the monarch is not bound by any obligations towards his subjects, who must obey him absolutely and unquestioningly. After all, people themselves agreed to alienate personal freedom in favor of the state during the social contract. And they gave up the right to choose in exchange for safety and order. . According to the philosopher, without a social contract, people are not capable of peaceful coexistence due to their natural hostility towards each other, the “struggle of all against all.” And for the agreement to be binding on everyone, an unyielding authority is needed to ensure compliance with the law. For Hobbes, absolute power was concentrated in the hands of the state, which is “Leviathan - the biblical sea monster” (the name was taken by Hobbes from the book of Job). Hobbes's state is by its nature an absolutist organization that has such power that it inspires fear. Hobbes sacrifices the freedom of the citizen to the state, doing this as if in the interests of the latter. The worst of evils, Hobbes believes, is anarchy, which is inevitable in the absence of a state.

Great value, like all thinkers of the 17th century, Hobbes devotes himself to such a branch of philosophy as the theory of knowledge - epistemology.

And this is understandable, because the demands of practice required special attention to science and the data it receives. Hobbes is concerned with the same problems as F. Bacon: how to obtain true knowledge - through sensation or reason, intuition or logic? What methods should be used in the cognitive process?

According to Hobbes, the main goal of knowledge is to find out the reasons for a particular process. Initial stage cognition is the process of realizing that our thinking lacks knowledge about the subject we are interested in. In this case, special attention should be paid to language, which is not only a means of knowledge, but also a source of lies and errors.

Cognition begins with sensuality, which should be seen as the first principle of the theory of knowledge. Hobbes proposes to call the products of sensory knowledge “phantoms (ghosts).” People, having received perceptions - phantoms (images), designate them with signs. The role of signs in people's lives is very great. In a certain sense, signs created man himself, so he can be defined as a being who operates with signs.

Hobbes developed a complete doctrine of signs, which reveals their epistemological role, structure and classification (typology).

Each sign in its structure, Hobbes noted, consists of the meaning it contains and the material. Hobbes, being a classic representative of nominalism of the 17th century, argued that only individual things really exist, and concepts are only their names. The most general concepts are the “names of names” that a person uses in the course of cognition. Man, according to Hobbes, has two types of knowledge: knowledge about physical bodies and knowledge of the names of things.

In the process of cognition, Hobbes emphasized, two opposing methods are used: induction and deduction. If mechanics most often uses logical deduction, then empirical physics gravitates towards induction. Within philosophy itself, induction predominates in the knowledge of nature, and deduction predominates in the knowledge of the state.