Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Hobbes “Leviathan”

Thesis: In Hobbes’ “Leviathan,” Hobbes used mathematical procedures to explain human nature.

I. Hobbes

a. British philosopher and political theorist

b. Witnessed agonies of English civil war

c. These events fortified Hobbes conviction that absolutism was the most desirable and logical form of government

II. Leviathan

a. Saw mathematical knowledge as the avenue to truth

b. Used self-evident axioms to deduce other truths

c. Aimed at constructing political philosophy on a scientific foundation

d. Rejected authority of tradition and religion as inconsistent with a science of politics

e. A rational and secular political statement

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