Thomas Hobbes
| —Plautus, 195 BC |
Thomas Hobbes (1588—1679) was an English philosopher, physicist, mathematician, and historian.[2]
As a philosopher Hobbes contemplated the nature of reasoning, sensation, imagination, and signification. He is considered to have been an empiricist, a nominalist, and a materialist, the latter particularly contrasting his philosophy with that of Aristotle. Hobbes agreed with Aristotle, however, that reliable knowledge was gained through reason and an understanding of the relationship of cause and effect.
Hobbes taught that human beings are naturally selfish, brutish and violent and absolute government was necessary to prevent a "war of all against all".
His principle work The Leviathan advocated absolute government, either monarchy or assembly, as the best political system and believed a social contract was formed or should be formed to create that system.
He was also quite fond of dram.
[edit] Footnotes
- ↑ Translated into English: “Man is a wolf to his fellow man”
- ↑ Thomas Hobbes. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 2009 March 11.