Introduction
Thomas Hobbes was a British philosopher. He was born on 5 April 1588 in Wiltshire, England. He was most known for his political philosophy in which he advocated for authoritarian governance justified by social contract theory. Other philosophical stances he was known to take included materialism and empiricism. He contributed greatly outside of philosophy as well, writing works in optics, theology and geometry – amongst other subjects.
Early Life
Little is known about his mother, but his father was also named Thomas Hobbes. While Hobbes was young, his father was involved in a fight and forced to leave his family behind who were thereafter taken care of by Hobbes’ uncle – Francis Hobbes, a wealthy glover. Hobbes was supported by his uncle through his studies at Magdalene Hall in Oxford where he studied scholastic logic and mathematics, though he did not take much to scholastic learning.
He graduated in 1608 whereafter he began working for the Cavendish family, tutoring William Cavendish (the husband of Margaret Cavendish). He would go on to spend the rest of his life working for and connected to the Cavendish family. For the next three decades after graduation, Hobbes traveled extensively and widened his intellectual base: He met Marin Mersenne and, allegedly, Galileo Galilei (. He briefly worked as a scribe to Francis Bacon and he published a number of translations of classical texts from Greek and Latin into English.
Philosophical Beginnings
His first known philosophical text was “The Elements of Law, Natural and Politic” finished in 1640. It was followed by “De Cive” (“On the Citizen”) in 1642. Both were texts focusing on political philosophy, though The Elements of Law was written only for members of Hobbes’ circles whereas De Cive was written for publication. De Cive would go on to become one entry in a larger trilogy of Hobbes’ work known as the “Elements of Philosophy”. Other entries in the “Elements of Philosophy” would include “De Corpore” (“On Body”), published in 1655, focusing on logic, metaphysics, and language, along with “De Homine” (“On Man”), published in 1658, focusing on physics and biology.
In 1640, Hobbes also wrote a set of objections to Descartes’ meditations which were published in 1641. The two authors, however, did not particularly agree with each other with Descartes saying that Hobbes should stick to moral philosophy and Hobbes saying that Descartes should stick to geometry.
Leviathan & Legacy
After the English Civil War began in 1642, Hobbes – who was living in Paris at the time – came into contact with many royalists. His contact with them along with the nature of the political climate turned Hobbes’ attention back to political philosophy culminating in his authorship of the treatise Leviathan – what is commonly known as Hobbes’ magnum opus. Leviathan advocated for the creation of the state as a monstrous “leviathan” composed of the conflicting desires for protection and order from citizens. In turn, Hobbes argued that the state would need an absolute degree of power to function. Leviathan was a hugely controversial piece of writing, angering people both along political lines, and also amongst religious lines in arguing for a government not founded upon divine rights. In time, the term “Hobbism” came to refer to anything “which it was the duty of every lover of true morality and religion to denounce”.
After the restoration of the monarchy in England in 1660, the new king – Charles II – favored Hobbes and granted him protections against a public which saw him as a heretic. In this time, as a result of his public reputation, Hobbes was banned from publishing any philosophical texts “relating to human conduct”. Nevertheless, Hobbes continued to write what he saw as a follow-up to Leviathan, “Behemoth: the History of the Causes of the Civil Wars of England and of the Counsels and Artifices”. However, due to the controversial nature of the text King Charles prohibited Hobbes from publishing it.
Hobbes passed away at age 91, at an estate of the Cavendish family. Behemoth would be published posthumously, and he would leave behind a formidable legacy that shaped political philosophy thereafter.
Sources Used:
Duncan, Stewart. 2025. “Thomas Hobbes.” In The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Spring 2025, edited by Edward N. Zalta and Uri Nodelman. Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University. https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2025/entries/hobbes/.
Aubrey, John. 1696. Brief Lives. Clarendon.
Croom Robertson, George. 1911. “1911 Encyclopædia Britannica.” In Hobbes, Thomas, 11th ed., vol. 13.