Philosophers
Thomas Hobbes
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English philosopher (1588 to 1679) whose Leviathan (1651) grounds political authority in a hypothetical social contract among individuals fleeing a violent state of nature, in which life is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short. A foundational figure of modern political philosophy and of philosophical materialism.
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Notable Publication Office HeldTutor in mathematics to the future Charles II, during Hobbes's exile in Paris 1 Held from roughly 1646 to 1648, interrupted by a severe illness in 1647. TraditionSocial contract theory; materialism 1 Cross-Tradition Connections
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1. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Stanford University, Center for the Study of Language and Informationentry: Hobbes's Moral and Political PhilosophyQuote, entry: Hobbes's Moral and Political Philosophy
Hobbes is famous for his early and elaborate development of what has come to be known as “social contract theory”, the method of justifying political principles or arrangements by appeal to the agreement that would be made among suitably situated rational, free, and equal persons.
1. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Stanford University, Center for the Study of Language and Informationentry: Hobbes's Moral and Political Philosophy, LifeQuote, entry: Hobbes's Moral and Political Philosophy, Life
Hobbes’s moral philosophy has been less influential than his political philosophy, in part because that theory is too ambiguous to have garnered any general consensus as to its content.
1. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Stanford University, Center for the Study of Language and InformationIn Category: PhilosophersView the Source 1. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Stanford University, Center for the Study of Language and InformationIn Branch: Political PhilosophyView the Source Reader Challenges (0 open reader challenges)
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