Hobbesianism

Hobbesianism
John Michael Wright · Public domain · source
Name	Thomas Hobbes
Birth date	5 April 1588
Death date	4 December 1679
Notable works	Leviathan
Era	Early modern philosophy
Region	English philosophy

Hobbesianism is the set of doctrines and interpretations derived from the political and moral philosophy of Thomas Hobbes, chiefly associated with his magnum opus Leviathan. It frames sovereignty, human motivation, and institutional legitimacy through a rigorous account influenced by early modern science, legal thought, and seventeenth‑century controversies. Hobbesianism has been debated across generations of philosophers, jurists, statesmen, and theorists connected to formative events and institutions in European and Atlantic history.

Overview

Hobbesianism emerged amid interactions among figures and contexts such as Niccolò Machiavelli, René Descartes, Galileo Galilei, Francis Bacon, James I of England, Charles I of England, English Civil War, Commonwealth of England, Restoration of Charles II, Royal Society, Emmanuel College, Cambridge, Westminster School, William Laud, Oliver Cromwell, John Selden, Henry VIII; it developed in dialogue with texts like Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian War, Homer's Iliad, Plato's Republic, Aristotle's Politics, Augustine of Hippo, and Martin Luther. Hobbesianism synthesizes materialist metaphysics, mechanistic physiology, and juridical analysis influenced by institutions such as Middle Temple, Eton College, Trinity College, Oxford, and networks of patrons including William Cavendish, 1st Duke of Newcastle, Francis Godolphin, and continental correspondents like Constantijn Huygens.

Core Doctrines

Hobbesianism articulates doctrines about the state of nature, sovereignty, natural law, and rights, drawing on authorities such as Justinian I jurisprudence, Gaius (jurist), Hugo Grotius, Samuel von Pufendorf, John Locke, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Immanuel Kant, David Hume, and later interpreters in Jeremy Bentham, John Stuart Mill, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, and Karl Marx. It posits that human beings, as discussed in physiological studies by William Harvey and anatomical research by Andreas Vesalius, pursue self‑preservation and are moved by appetites and aversions, a view that intersects with legal concepts present in Magna Carta and contemporary debates exemplified by the Glorious Revolution. Hobbesianism endorses a sovereign whose authority resembles legal instruments like Edict of Nantes outcomes or treaties such as the Treaty of Westphalia in establishing order.

Political Philosophy and Social Contract

Hobbesian social contract theory connects to contractual traditions represented by documents and actors like Treaty of Utrecht, Peace of Westphalia, Thomas Cranmer, John Calvin, Henry VIII's Dissolution of the Monasteries, and diplomatic practices involving Cardinal Richelieu and Cardinal Mazarin. Hobbesianism treats sovereignty as indivisible and absolute to prevent the chaos depicted by chroniclers like Edward Gibbon and military episodes such as the English Civil War and Pilgrimage of Grace. Legal scholars and statesmen including Edward Coke, William Blackstone, Lord Mansfield, Robert Filmer, and Hugo Grotius have engaged Hobbesian claims about consent, covenant, and the legitimacy of punishment, influencing constitutional developments like the Bill of Rights 1689 and political institutions exemplified by the House of Commons and House of Lords.

Moral Psychology and Human Nature

Hobbesian moral psychology stresses passions, reason, and fear as motivators, a framework debated alongside biological inquiries by Robert Boyle and psychological treatments by Thomas Willis, and literary portrayals by John Milton, Ben Jonson, William Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe, and Edmund Spenser. The conception of individuals as rational calculators of interest resonates with economic theorists like Adam Smith and later utilitarians such as Jeremy Bentham; it also informed strategic thinking in works by Carl von Clausewitz, Niccolò Machiavelli, and military reforms after events like the Battle of Naseby. Debates about conscience and obedience brought in theologians and jurists such as Richard Hooker, John Calvin, Hugo Grotius, and critics like Blaise Pascal and Voltaire.

Influence and Criticism

Hobbesianism influenced constitutional thought, international law, and realist political theory, affecting actors and texts including John Locke, Immanuel Kant, G. W. F. Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Alexis de Tocqueville, Edmund Burke, Max Weber, Niccolò Machiavelli, Antonio Gramsci, Carl Schmitt, Leo Strauss, Hannah Arendt, John Rawls, Robert Nozick, Isaiah Berlin, Jürgen Habermas, Michael Oakeshott, Isaiah Berlin, Leo Strauss, and institutions like the United Nations and League of Nations. Criticisms arose from republican theorists exemplified by Cicero, Polybius, and modern republicans such as Quentin Skinner and P. J. A. Scarfe, as well as Marxists like Friedrich Engels and Vladimir Lenin. Other critiques address empirical claims by scientists including Antony van Leeuwenhoek and philosophers like Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz.

Variants and Modern Interpretations

Contemporary variants of Hobbesianism appear in realist international relations scholarship associated with figures such as Hans Morgenthau, Kenneth Waltz, John Mearsheimer, E. H. Carr, Barry Posen, and in jurisprudential debates influenced by H. L. A. Hart, Ronald Dworkin, Lon L. Fuller, Niccolò Machiavelli, and Jerome Hall. Hobbesian themes recur in public policy and law through case studies tied to institutions like the Supreme Court of the United States, European Court of Human Rights, International Court of Justice, and through geopolitical events involving Napoleonic Wars, World War I, World War II, Cold War, Suez Crisis, and Iraq War. Neo‑Hobbesian approaches intersect with game theory developed by John von Neumann and John Nash, behavioral economics linked to Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky, and contemporary political theorists such as Thomas Nagel, G. A. Cohen, Philip Pettit, Martha Nussbaum, Charles Taylor, and Judith Shklar.

Category:Political philosophy