The main works of T. Hobbes. Thomas Hobbes - biography, information, personal life T Hobbes years of life

Materialism of the 17th century received further development and systematization in the work of Thomas Hobbes. He was a representative of nominalism and empiricism of epistemology, although some elements of rationalism are also evident in his teaching. He emphasized that there is not a single concept in the human mind that would not initially exist in the sense organs.

As a representative of the advanced philosophy of his time, Hobbes opposed the church and religious scholasticism and set as his goal the creation of a philosophy identical to the natural human mind and capable of teaching people correct thinking. He considered mathematics to be a model of knowledge and argued that only it is capable of providing the necessary reliable and universal knowledge.

Philosophy, according to Hobbes, “is innate to every person, for everyone, to a certain extent, reasons about some things.” By reasoning he means calculus, since to calculate means to find the sum of things added or to determine the remainder when subtracting something from another. This means that reasoning is the same as adding and subtracting. Thus, Hobbes's logic coincides with mathematics, and thinking with counting techniques.

Hobbes distinguished between two types of knowledge:

1) knowledge delivered by sensation and memory and giving us only knowledge of a fact

2) scientific knowledge, which is “knowledge of the connections and dependencies of facts.

At the center of philosophy, Hobbes places the concept of body, which is understood as something that has properties that is subject to creation and destruction. Based on this understanding of the body, he identifies philosophy has two parts:

- philosophy of nature (covers natural objects and phenomena)

- philosophy of state ( artificial bodies that arise due to human will, by virtue of the contract and agreement of people. )

Hobbes is one of those philosophers who, creating a comprehensive philosophical system, singled out one main problem - the problem of the state. While solving it, he expressed a number of new ideas about man and society.

· that people, trying to get out of the state of nature, create a state on the basis of a social contract.

· The state is a kind of artificial body, a mechanism living an artificial life. Its main goal is to take care of the well-being of citizens.

· The state was understood by him as the only form of existence of society.

· The state, as a guarantor of peace, gives every person the opportunity to realize his rights (to life, security, etc.), which are given to him by nature. Thomas Hobbes was a supporter of strong absolute government power.

Hobbes views man as both a natural and a moral being. He mechanically compared man as a natural body and the state as an artificial body.

The soul of the state is the supreme power; its joints are the judicial and executive bodies; nerves - rewards and punishments; memory - advisors; reason - justice and laws; health - civil peace; illness - turmoil; death - civil war. Based on the principles of “human nature,” he explained social life.

According to Hobbes, in the course of historical development, the natural equality of people is replaced by inequality. This is facilitated by the emergence of property due to the development of labor.

* man has an inherently evil nature;

* the driving force behind human actions is personal gain and selfishness, passions, needs, affects;

* these qualities lead to every person’s awareness of the right to everything;

* the right of every person to everything and disregard for the interests of others leads to a “war of all against all,” in which there can be no winner and which makes normal life together for people and economic progress impossible;

* in order to survive together, people concluded social (joint) contract, in which they limited their claims and “the right of all to everything”;

* to prevent the “war of all against all”, to suppress extreme egoism, a common institution (mechanism) arose to regulate life in society - state;

* in order to effectively carry out its very difficult functions, the state must become omnipotent;

* the state is an unshakable, multi-faceted, all-powerful monster - “Leviathan”, which “devours and sweeps away everything in its path” - a force that cannot be resisted, but which is necessary to maintain the viability of society, order and justice in it.

The philosopher distinguishes 2 states in the development of society - natural and civil. Thomas Hobbes characterizes the natural as a war of all against all, so there is an urgent need to move to a civil state. A sign of civil status is the presence of strong centralized power. The laws of the state, according to Hobbes, should limit the freedoms of people (renunciation of part of their rights in favor of the state).

T. Hobbes believed that a person realizes knowledge mainly through sensory perception. Sensory perception-- this is the reception by the senses (eyes, ears, etc.) of signals from the surrounding world and their subsequent processing. T. Hobbes calls these signals “signs” and gives them the following classification:

* signals - sounds made by animals to express their actions or intentions (the “singing” of birds, the growling of predators, meowing, etc.);

* tags - various signs invented by humans for communication;

* natural signs - “signals” of nature (thunder, lightning, clouds, etc.);

* arbitrary communicative signs - words of different languages;

* signs in the role of “tags” - special “coded” speech, understandable to few (scientific language, religious language, jargon, etc.);

* signs of signs - names of names - universals (general concepts). As a method of knowledge, T. Hobbes advocated the simultaneous use of both induction and deduction.

The philosopher wrote many works on mathematics, history, physics, and philosophy, including works such as: “A short treatise on first principles”, a treatise “The principles of law, natural and political”. This treatise was published in two parts - “Human nature" and "On the body politic", "Questions concerning freedom, necessity and chance", "Six lessons for professors of mathematics at Oxford University", "Dialogues on physics, or on the nature of air", "Mr. Hobbes from the point of view of his loyalty, faith, reputation and behavior”, “Behemoth, or the Long Parliament”, “Dialogues between a philosopher and a student of the common law of England” and other works. His main works are considered to be:

· Philosophical trilogy “Fundamentals of Philosophy”

1. “About the body”

2. "About Man"

3. "About the Citizen"

· “Leviathan, or Matter, the form and power of the state, ecclesiastical and civil.”

The 17th century English philosopher Thomas Hobbes developed a rather primitive materialistic worldview, but it subsequently became very popular among the so-called “advanced” atheistic figures and therefore became widely known.

Portrait of Thomas Hobbes

Hobbes' Empiricism

According to Hobbes, the only subject of philosophy (and science in general) is bodies, for only material and finite objects exist. God is unknowable, and philosophy cannot judge him. Deity and soul are objects not of rational knowledge, but of revealed faith and the theology associated with it.

Hobbes reduced human thinking to one logic, and limited it to simple mathematical operations of comparison and discrimination, addition and subtraction. This approach is natural for a worldview that reduces all reality to just bodies, but Hobbes’s interpretation is extremely simplified even for him.

In the theory of knowledge, Hobbes proclaims consistent empiricism. Logic, in his opinion, operates exclusively with data obtained from experience. Movements cause impressions in our senses, and impressions cause movements within us. Thoughts are these movements occurring inside a person. They are, therefore, ordinary movements of bodily substances, containing nothing ideal in themselves. Consciousness processes ideas through a physiological connection between material traces of movements. Comparison, combination and division process simple empirical ideas into more complex ones - in his philosophical writings Hobbes compares this to how the ideas of successive numbers arise from the combination of ideas of individual units. We cannot have ideas of incorporeal objects, since such objects are not perceived by the senses. Comparison, connection and separation do not change the simple ideas obtained by experience from sensations, but only consider them side by side, sometimes in fusion, sometimes separately. This Hobbesian doctrine of knowledge had a strong influence on Locke and many other English empiricist philosophers.

Will, like knowledge, arises from impressions from the external world. In addition to logical conclusions, the latter give rise to feelings of pleasure and displeasure. The individual strives to enhance pleasure, and to weaken displeasure. Both are just movements in a person’s heart, just as perception is a movement in his brain. We consider things that give us pleasure as good, and those that give rise to opposite feelings as evil. The desire to preserve and enhance pleasure turns into action, and the opposite craving leads to abstinence from action. The result of choosing between actions and abstaining from them is called will. Volitional choice externally free, but looking at his hidden roots, it is easy to see that he is always necessary leans towards the strongest attraction. Therefore, we can talk about free will only with significant reservations.

In ethics, Hobbes, like most materialists, proclaims the relativity of morality. Absolute good does not exist. What is good for us is evil for our enemies. The concept of good, according to Hobbes' philosophy, comes down to everyday feelings of the beautiful and useful, not based on anything more sublime.

Hobbes' theory of the origin of the state

Hobbes's simple epistemology differed little from the views of other empiricist philosophers. His theory of the origin of the state gained much greater fame, although this part of Hobbes’s teaching was distinguished not so much by its depth as by its persistence in persistently following an extreme materialist point of view.

The theory of the origin of the state was expounded by Hobbes in his famous work “Leviathan.” Like all materialists, he proceeds from the fact that man is by nature evil and greedy. It is impossible to look at the human personality differently if we deny the presence of ideal principles in its soul and explain everything in it only by material motives. Hobbes believes that in the original, natural state (before the emergence of the state), people were equal to each other. But due to their greedy nature and the desire of each to rule over his neighbor, from this equality only war of all against all(bellum omnium contra omnes). To get rid of the fear and danger associated with this general war, it was necessary to create a state. To do this, each individual had to renounce his freedom and unlimited right to everything, transferring it to one or more persons. This act of refusal is the essence of the origin of the state.

According to Hobbes's philosophy, in order to prevent the resumption of a war of all against all, all rights of individuals should be transferred to the state fully. It should become unlimited, and subjects must entirely obey him. Of the three types of government - democracy, aristocracy and monarchy - only monarchy achieves the main goal for which the state was created - the security of citizens. Therefore, the monarchical system is the best possible. An individual citizen must be completely powerless and insignificant in relation to the state. The representative of the supreme power, as the source of laws, stands above them, for he himself determines the concept of fair and unfair, honest and dishonest, mine and yours. Citizens can rebel against the state only if it is unable to protect peace - and only in order to replace loose despotism with a capable one and then again renounce all their rights in its favor.

The supreme power must completely dominate not only in secular affairs, but also determine religious dogmas and cult. Church and state cannot be separated from each other, they must form an inseparable whole. In his doctrine of the supremacy of the state over the church, Hobbes follows the main principle

Thomas Hobbes

Leviathan

Thomas Hobbes was born in Westport, a place near Malmesbury, in the south of England. In 1608 he graduated from Oxford University, where he received an excellent classical education. The young philosopher entered the service of the Dukes of Devonshire. This service was to last almost 70 years, with a short break. Hobbes worked for several years as secretary to Francis Bacon (1561–1626).

Between 1610 and 1636, Hobbes made three long trips across continental Europe. In 1629, he became interested in “natural philosophy,” without abandoning his studies in ethics and politics. In the late 1630s, Hobbes began work on a philosophical trilogy consisting of books Decorpore, Dehomine, Derive (About the body, About the person, About the citizen), Having found refuge in Paris since 1642 from the upheavals of English political life, the philosopher became a friend of Mersenne (see note to the chapter on Descartes. - Note lane), which created a kind of small unofficial university around itself. There he meets Gassendi and Sorbier. (Samuel Sorbière (1615–1670) - French physician and philosopher. - Note trans.) Hobbes reads the works of Descartes, but does not share his views. The book was published in 1642 About the citizen and in 1651 - Leviathan, which became the main work of the philosopher’s life. (Leviathan is a monster from Phoenician mythology.) Returning to England in 1651, Hobbes completed work on the book About the body. In 1654, the book was published, marking the beginning of endless disputes between the author and the mathematician Wallis. In 1658 a treatise appeared About a human. Throughout his long old age, Hobbes was subject to constant criticism from many scientists and philosophers. He died in 1679, already serving the third generation of Dukes of Devonshire.

General theory of power

Thomas Hobbes was the first major modern philosopher to be deeply interested in politics.

Leviathan written by him in his mature years. Although Hobbes published his works without adhering to a strict logical order, they are all parts of a single plan, carefully thought out back in the 1630s. All these works fit into one general system, and each of them occupies its specific place in it. The main theme that runs through all the philosopher’s works is the theory of power. He examines the issue of power from the perspective of various sciences: physics, anthropology and, of course, politics. Hobbes writes his books in English and Latin. First option Leviathan, in English, appeared in 1651. The book was translated into Latin only in 1668. However, it can be assumed that Hobbes first wrote a number of chapters from this work in Latin, since the English version of the book is less developed than some chapters of the Latin translation.

Potentia and potesias

When talking about power, Hobbes uses English in the word power, but in the Latin translation he uses two terms: "potentia" And "potestas". The first of these (potentia) means power as power, the ability to exert influence or be subject to it. This power is manifested in action, the result of which depends only on external circumstances. Second term (potestas) refers to authority subject to law (political authority). Unlike natural power, political power is created artificially.

For Hobbes, power as a concept is simultaneously the source, object and goal of knowledge:

“Source, since knowledge is based on the power to know a person. Object, because knowledge is an understanding of the ways and laws by which objects and beings experience or influence each other. The goal - for the ultimate purpose of science is the dominance of man not only over nature, but also over his own destiny.

According to Hobbes, the science of power is essentially the “science of man.” This is the science opposite to the “science” of God (after all, we know nothing about God; theology cannot replace science). The doctrine of man is a “science” because it uses rigorous scientific analysis as its method.

Hobbes disagrees with the basic tenets of Cartesianism. He believes that there is no innate truth. A person can create a science of power only by studying human society... By examining the ability to cognition and the forces that move an individual person, it is possible to determine the source of political power (from the treatise Elements of laws, natural and political). From knowledge of human nature and the characteristics of power, one can derive a theory of the natural state of human society (Hotel, About a person). On this basis, it is possible to build a political anthropology that unites all areas of science and studies primarily human beings. (Leviathan).

This work, although it occupies an impressive volume (the complete French edition contains 780 pages), is well written and easy to read. It consists of four parts, sharply different from one another (some of them were published in French in separate editions): “About Man”, “About the State”, “About the Christian State”, “The Kingdom of Darkness”.

1. About the person

Hobbes begins his treatise with an examination of sensation. First he describes it from a physical and physiological point of view, and then from a mental one. An external object causes a movement in the sense organ, which is transmitted first to the brain and then to the heart, either directly or through the medium of the environment. Then the movement begins in the opposite direction. This movement, directed outward, appears to us as an external reality. Hobbes tries to combine three aspects of the issue in his theory: a mechanistic explanation of sensation, subjective confirmation of feeling in consciousness, and an explanation of the resulting perception of external reality.

The sensation is present in consciousness in the form of an image, thought or fantasy. These terms serve as synonyms for Hobbes. Human prudence is explained by the fact that empirical expectations are rooted in the mechanism of associations. Prudence differs from science, which is based on calculation, on the precise use of language at the level of both definitions and evidence: “If rich experience is prudence, then rich knowledge is wisdom.”(proverb of that time). According to Hobbes, science is a construction. Geometry is true in its essence, since the geometric scientist builds it from various components, using conventional definitions. Where it is impossible to use a geometric model, science ends. Any real science is knowledge of all the consequences arising from definitions related to the topic under study.

Chapter VI deals with the question of passions. Hobbes believes that life is essentially a continuous movement of the organs of the body, occurring regardless of our desire. This is organic movement, as opposed to voluntary movement (for example, moving from place to place). The objects we perceive convey movement to the heart, and therefore can promote or hinder organic movement. Pleasure is what we experience when the objects we perceive correspond to organic movement, while dissatisfaction, on the contrary, arises when there is a contradiction between these elements. Attraction and aversion, therefore, are the beginning of a movement towards mastery or avoidance, invisible to us.

Passion directs a person to what is beneficial for him, that is, to an object corresponding to his organic movement. But passion can also be an end in itself. Some passions are difficult to explain by an organic movement (the desire for scientific work, the desire to fight, and therefore risk life, etc.). However, basically a person manages his relations with the outside world not on the basis of free will, but by reconciling his passions and the knowledge (sensual, rational or: scientific) of external conditions that he possesses. Hobbes devotes Chapter VIII to intellectual virtues. Virtues are valued by everyone. Some of them are innate (for example, mental alertness); others are acquired on the basis of habit or education. Differences in minds are determined by passions arising from differences between people in physiological condition, feelings, and also in culture. Thus desire is also a form of individual difference.

Speaking about knowledge (Chapter IX), Hobbes distinguishes between knowledge of a fact (history) and the sequential dependence of one fact on another (philosophy). After this he moves on to the question of power (chapter X): “The power of a person, taken in general terms, is his available means of achieving some visible good in the future. It can be either natural or instrumental." Natural power is associated with personal physical strength: Instrumental are those forms of power that allow you to gain even greater power:

“The greatest human power is that which is composed of the forces of the majority of people, united by agreement, and transferred to one person, physical or civil, who uses all these forces either according to his own will, such as, for example, the power of the state, or depending on the will of each individually, what is the power of the party or league of different parties ... "

Hobbes then looks at the various forms of power: wealth, reputation, success, nobility, beauty - and the areas in which they manifest themselves. About knowledge, for example, he says this:

“Knowledge is a small power, because it does not manifest itself externally and therefore is not noticed in anyone, and not everyone has it, but only a few, and these few have knowledge of only a few things, and the nature of knowledge is such that to recognize its presence in anyone “or only one who has mastered it to a significant extent can do it.”

Applied arts (techniques) have received the most recognition in society because they are useful for fortification, construction of military vehicles, etc.

“Even though people (as the majority do) value themselves as highly as they please, their true value is not higher than what others value them at.”

This chapter ends with a discussion about the dignity or, as we would say today, the level of competence of a person:

“The dignity of a person is a thing distinct from his value or value, as well as from his merits, and consists in a special gift or ability for that for which he is considered worthy.”

In the next chapter, considering human morals (manners) in all their diversity, Hobbes shows that in man there is a constant, tireless desire to acquire more and more power, a desire that ends only with death: This explains wars. Even when a person becomes a king, this is not enough for him. Why? Because there is always a risk of losing what you have. Therefore, the king seeks to increase his possessions.

In Chapter XII, Hobbes analyzes in detail the relationship between man and religion.

The philosopher then moves on to questions about the state of nature, the laws of nature, social agreements and contract, logically moving on to the topics of book II. In the state of nature, people wage a constant war of all against all. In this state, “every person has the right to everything, even to the life of every other person...” The favorable time for concluding an agreement and a social contract comes when reason demands it and all people strive for peace, and continues as long as there is hope of achieving peace... And then,

"…V If others consent to this, a person must agree to renounce the right to all things to the extent necessary in the interests of peace and self-defense, and be content with such a degree of freedom in relation to other people that he would allow other people in relation to to myself",

Hobbes analyzes all aspects of the contract for the mutual transfer of rights. Extremely important "implement agreements once they are reached" because otherwise people will again slide back to the natural state. Hobbes's definition of the state of nature is well known, which he characterizes elsewhere with the formula “Man is a wolf to man.” This concept was fiercely criticized by Rousseau. According to Rousseau, the state of war of all against all, which Hobbes spoke about, is not the initial, but the final state of society (see chapter 9 in our book).

2. About the state

As a result of a social contract, a state is formed, that is, organized social life. The entire second is dedicated to the state part of Leviathan.

“The state is a single person, for whose actions a great many people have made themselves responsible by mutual agreement among themselves, so that this person can use the power and means of all of them as he deems necessary for their peace and common defense.”

An idea put forward earlier by Hobbes in his treatise About the citizen that every political organization begins with democracy, in Book II Leviathan almost forgotten. Although theoretically, participants in a social contract can either share power among everyone (in which case democracy is established), or transfer it to a supreme assembly (aristocracy), or to a sovereign (monarchy), By it is the latter form of government that is the wisest:

“...Comparing the monarchy with the other two forms of government, we can notice the following... Every bearer of the face of the people or a member of the assembly who is such a bearer is at the same time the bearer of his own natural face. Therefore, no matter how diligently such a person, as a political person, cares about ensuring the common good, he, however, more or less assiduously also cares about ensuring his personal welfare, the welfare of his family, relatives and friends, and, if common interests collide with his private interests, he in most cases gives preference to his own interests, because people’s passions are usually stronger than their reason. General interests therefore benefit most where they coincide more closely with private interests. This is precisely the coincidence that exists in the monarchy. The wealth, power and glory of a monarch are due to the wealth, power and reputation of his subjects.”

A social contract is an act in which each of the participants declares: “I give power to this person or this collection of people and give him the right to govern himself.” Hobbes clearly states that contract involves man giving up his natural right. To give someone power means to make him your representative. The sovereign is thus the supreme representative of all his subjects. It should not be opposed by any “representative body.” And no subject has the right to challenge the decision of the sovereign, because he has already approved this decision in advance. He recognized it as his own even before it was pronounced. The highest expression of this preliminary recognition is absolutism. The sovereign therefore has enormous rights. The only thing that can relieve a subject from the obligation to obey him is an immediate threat hanging over his life.

Book II examines in detail other issues: political (government, council, functions of the sovereign’s representative), economic (“On the nutrition of the state and the production of offspring by it”), legal (civil law; crimes and circumstances that relieve punishment and mitigate them; punishment and compensation for losses) and sociological (which weakens the state and leads to its collapse). It ends with the chapter "About The Kingdom of God through Nature" logically leading the reader to the third part.

3. About the Christian state

In the third part Leviathan it says that church power must be subordinate to political power. Based on the texts of the Old and New Testaments, Hobbes shows that even Jesus did not try to create the Kingdom of God, which would oppose earthly power. The Kingdom of God is located in another world.

In Chapter XLII About church authority Hobbes divides history into two periods: the one when the sovereigns did not yet profess the true faith, and the one when they had already accepted it.

If a subject lives in a faith different from the faith of the sovereign, then, according to Hobbes, he must believe only in his soul, and in practical matters fulfill the demands of the authorities:

“But what can anyone object if some king, or senate, or other sovereign forbids us to believe in Christ? To this I answer that such a prohibition will remain ineffective, for faith and unbelief never follow human orders. Faith is a gift of God, which no one can give or take away with the promise of reward and the threat of torture... Everything that a subject is forced to do out of obedience to his sovereign, and everything that he does not from his own impulse, but in obedience to the laws of his country, all that the act is not the act of the subject, but of his sovereign, and it is not the subject who in this case denies Christ before men, but his ruler and the law of his country.”

If the sovereign adheres to the true faith, then he, and not the church, must monitor the purity of public morals.

“When the pope claims the supremacy in matters of morality, he teaches men disobedience to their civil sovereigns, which is an erroneous doctrine, contrary to many of the rules handed down to us in Scripture by our Savior and his apostles.”

Hobbes stands on the side of the English sovereign in his struggle with the Pope. He continues:

“...This whole dispute about whether Christ gave jurisdiction to the pope alone or to all other bishops besides him is a dispute de lana caprina [literally: “about goat’s hair” (lat.), i.e. about trifles, wasted]. For none of them has (where they are not sovereigns) any jurisdiction. Indeed, jurisdiction is the right to hear and decide disputes between people, which can only belong to one who has the power to prescribe rules regarding what is lawful and what is unlawful, that is, to make laws and, with the sword of justice, force people to obey his decisions made himself or the judges appointed by him for this purpose: and no one else has such power legally except the civil sovereign. […] The pope himself has no right of jurisdiction in the dominions of other monarchs […] on the contrary, all bishops, insofar as they have the right of jurisdiction, receive this right from their civil sovereigns […].”

It is also noticeable that Hobbes in this long chapter supports the Anglican Church in its struggle with Rome.

4. About the kingdom of darkness

The fourth part is perhaps the shortest in the entire book. This is a fierce attack on the Catholic Church, which has arrogated to itself the right to interfere in the affairs of earthly states. Here is a short excerpt from Hobbes's reasoning on this topic:

“From the pope’s claim to be the supreme vicar of Christ in the present church (considered to be the kingdom of Christ of which the Gospel speaks), follows […] the resolution of the fourth council of the Lateran, which met under Pope Innocent III […]: If any king after warning the pope does not cleanse his kingdom of heresies and, being excommunicated for this from the church, does not give satisfaction for a year, then his subjects are released from their obligation to obey him, where by heresy are meant all those opinions that the Roman Church has forbidden to support. Because of this, it happens that as soon as the political interests of the pope come into conflict with the political interests of other Christian kings, as very often happens, such a mist arises among the subjects of these kings that they cannot distinguish between a foreigner who has seized the throne of their legitimate sovereign and to those whom they themselves placed on this throne; and in this darkness of reason they are driven to fight against each other, not distinguishing enemies from friends, and all this in the interest of the other person’s ambition.”

Review, conclusion and application

The English, and therefore the complete French, editions end with a brief overview of everything that has been said and a conclusion. In conclusion, the circumstances under which supporters of a legitimate but overthrown government may submit to the winner are examined. This refers to the moral problem facing the royalists after the overthrow and death of the king and the establishment of a republic under the firm hand of Cromwell. In these circumstances, in accordance with his theory, Hobbes speaks out for cooperation with the new government, while refraining from statements that could be perceived as justifying revolution and regicide.

To the Latin edition of 1668, Hobbes added an appendix, occupying about a twelfth of the entire length of the book. (This application was first published in Russian in the translation by N. A. Fedorov in the cited publication. - Note trans.) Its text consists of three chapters: On the Nicene Creed, On Heresy, On Some Objections to Leviathan. As F. Tricot notes, in 1666 Hobbes had serious reasons to fear persecution for the anti-religious nature of his writings. In the application, he tries to defend himself against these accusations. He justifies his teaching and considers laws punishing heresy. F, Tricot explains:

“In any case, it is clear that his approach to religious problems is often ambiguous and unexpected, despite the fact that the author calls himself orthodox: even in Chapter III of the Appendix, written as proof of the impeccable purity of his faith, he does not hesitate to declare, that God is a body."

A comment

On the author's philosophical theory Leviathan there is an undoubted imprint of the socio-political situation in which his work was created. At that time, society was gripped by an acute crisis. We mean a social and institutional crisis that has affected all aspects of European societies and culture, that is, science, politics and religion. There was a need to reconsider their objects and interrelations, that is, in what we would today call an “institutional analysis” of society as a whole. In this environment, Hobbes makes an attempt in his writings to outline the conditions and boundaries of true knowledge, establish the rules underlying the political game (social attitudes), and determine the position and role of religion in the state.

The place of Leviathan in Hobbes's creative heritage

In 1651, when he came out Leviathan, Hobbes's philosophical teaching had already practically taken shape, and, according to the author's plan, this work was supposed to become a kind of synthesis, generalization, as well as a scientific substantiation of those working hypotheses that the author expressed in his previous works. Comparing with them Leviathan, However, we can find many new judgments to which we should pay attention.

This essay purports to be truly scientific. The book is distinguished by its rigorous deductive approach to anthropology. For example, in the first part (Chapter XII) Hobbes examines religion from the point of view of the anthropology of faith. In the treatise About the citizen religion may still seem almost to be the basis of duty, the justification of moral principles expressed in natural laws. Here it is considered only as a complex passion, although it has a special meaning, since it determines whether people’s behavior will be peaceful or warlike.

IN Leviathan a new theory of personality and social representation has been put forward. The latter is seen as a legal relationship between the initiator of the action (that is, the one who “confers power”) and its performer. The right to enter into an agreement also appears in social contract theory. After all, rights are transferred not only to things, but also to actions and power over a person. With the conclusion of a social contract, the opposite phenomenon also occurs. Having “rights-oriented” as a support, the sovereign himself must become a guarantor of the fulfillment of civic duty.

IN Leviathan developed complex and detailed theory of the state. This work first put forward an institutional logical scheme, which to a certain extent is still valid today. Society received a theory that allowed for the development of forms of statehood. The logic of social institutions smoothes out the shortcomings of the sovereign's governance. At the same time, it determines the rights and responsibilities of a citizen. As noted by I.-Sh. Zarqa, “political issues are made here dependent on social equilibrium, the theory of self-regulation of social institutions replaces the Aristotelian theory of their immutability.”

How to Define What Science Is

François Tricot notes that Hobbes, while distinguishing between prudence and science, does not deny that experience, properly analyzed, can be a source of scientific knowledge. "All knowledge has its source from experience"- the philosopher writes in his Elements of laws. Similarly, in the preface to the second edition of the treatise About the citizen he claims that this work of his has scientific character, because the “relies on its own principles, learned by experience.” F. Tricot sees a certain contradiction here. On the one hand, Hobbes believes that science is built on the basis of conventions, and on the other, he puts forward the idea that it is built on the data of experience.

In matters of human knowledge, and especially in political research, Hobbes still relies mainly on experience. Leviathan written primarily based on the analysis of experimental data. As the author writes in the preface, “Every person, and especially a sovereign, should see in himself not this or that specific personality, but Humanity.” Hobbes's second definition of science is more narrow and relates only to "pure science".

Faith and politics

IN Leviathan contains a rather superficial criticism of the Holy Scriptures, based only on rational arguments. By examining its content, Hobbes wishes to prove that some theological writings on Scripture are politically unacceptable. The purpose of Hobbes's philosophical works is to justify the existence republics(states - Note lane), that is, to legitimize sovereign(we use these terms in a scientific sense). Religion has its rightful place, but it should never interfere with the affairs of secular power, which ensures peace and social balance. Based on religious texts, Hobbes tries to justify and justify the separation of the Anglican Church from the Catholic Church. From a philosophical point of view, this part, perhaps, today seems to be the “weakest” in his book, but it is also interesting as an illustration of the author’s political doctrine.

Hobbes's political philosophy is inseparable from the realities of his time. Even those parts are not free from their influence Leviathan, that they are mainly devoted to theory (books I and II). When writing them, the philosopher had in mind primarily the political problems of his era. Books III and IV would now have only historical value if Rome had finally stopped interfering in secular affairs. For a long time, popes did not demand Christians to disobey sovereigns who made laws contrary to encyclicals. In a sense it can be said that Leviathan gave the church a certain place in public life, with which it was forced to come to terms. This was the case before John Paul II became pope, who seems to be eager to return to the times Leviathan.(Let's leave this tirade on the conscience of the author. Although he is not so wrong... - Note lane)

And yet the main reason why Hobbes is interesting to us to this day is that, even while defending absolute monarchy, he stood at the origins of the idea of "human rights".

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Thomas Hobbes was born prematurely on April 5, 1588 in Malmesbury (Gloucestershire) into the family of a village priest, after his mother was frightened by the news of the approaching Spanish Armada. Despite this unfortunate set of circumstances, he lived an unusually long and fruitful life. Fame came to him as the author of philosophical treatises, but his inclination towards philosophy manifested itself when he was well over forty. Hobbes lived during one of the most significant periods in English history. He was at school at the end of the reign of Elizabeth I, was a graduate of the university, a tutor and scholar of ancient languages ​​in the era of James I, studied philosophy in the reign of Charles I, was famous and under suspicion under Cromwell, and finally came into fashion as a historian. poet and almost an indispensable attribute of British life during the Restoration era.

Hobbes was raised by an uncle who had significant wealth and was eager to give his nephew a decent education. The child began studying at the parish school at the age of four and studied Latin and Greek from the age of six. From the age of eight he attended school in Malmesbury, and then studied in nearby Westport, at a private educational institution opened there by an amateur and expert in ancient languages, Latimer. At the age of fourteen, having mastered languages ​​so much that he could freely translate Euripides into Latin iambic, with the assistance of Latimer and the financial support of his uncle, Hobbes entered Maudlin Hall, one of the colleges of Oxford University. There he spent five years studying Aristotelian logic and physics, as well as improving his knowledge of Greek and Latin, at the end of his studies he received a bachelor's degree. It is not known what the future fate of the future philosopher would have been like if he had not received an offer to become a mentor and companion of the young Baron Cavendish, who then bore the title of Earl of Devonshire. Hobbes agreed and in 1608 entered the family of aristocrats close to the court, first as a home teacher, then as a personal secretary. His connection with the Cavendish family lasted throughout his life.

The funds he received thanks to his mentoring were enough to continue his academic studies. Hobbes also had the opportunity to meet influential people, he had a first-class library at his disposal, and among other things, accompanying the young Cavendish on his travels, he was able to visit France and Italy, which served as a strong stimulus for his mental development. Hobbes's intellectual biography can be divided into periods corresponding to three trips to Europe.

His first trip in 1610 inspired him to study ancient authors, since in Europe Aristotelian philosophy, in the traditions of which he was raised, was already considered outdated. Hobbes returned to England, determined to become more deeply acquainted with the thinkers of antiquity. Conversations with Lord Chancellor Francis Bacon strengthened him in this. These conversations apparently took place between 1621 and 1626, when Bacon had already retired and was busy writing treatises and various scientific research projects. Hobbes probably inherited not only Bacon's contempt for Aristotelianism, but also the conviction that knowledge is power and that the purpose of science is to improve the human condition. In his autobiography, written in Latin in 1672, he writes about his studies in antiquity as the happiest period of his life. Its completion should be considered a translation of Thucydides' History, published partly to warn his compatriots about the dangers of democracy, for at that time Hobbes, like Thucydides, was on the side of the “royal” power. In addition, in the preface he tried to explain that the history of the Peloponnesian War would help his contemporaries better understand the socio-political reality.

After the death of his patron, the Earl of Devonshire, Hobbes leaves his family and becomes the tutor of the son of a Scottish nobleman. In 1628, with his student, he made a second trip to the continent. They arrive in France and live in Paris for 18 months.

During his second trip to Europe, Hobbes became passionately interested in geometry, the existence of which he learned by chance when he discovered Euclid's Elements on a table in a certain gentleman's library. By studying geometry, Hobbes became convinced that it provided a method by which his views on social order could be presented in the form of irrefutable evidence. The ills of a society on the verge of civil war will be cured if people delve into the rationale for a rational government, presented in the form of clear and consistent theses, like the proofs of a geometer.

Hobbes's return to England (in 1631) was accelerated by the offer he received to return to the family of the late Earl of Devonshire and take charge of raising his son.

Hobbes's third journey through continental Europe (1634-1636) introduced another element into his system of natural and social philosophy. In Paris, he became a member of the Mersenne circle, which included R. Descartes, P. Gassendi and other representatives of the new science and philosophy, and in 1636 he made a pilgrimage to Italy to Galileo. By 1637 he was ready to develop his own philosophical system; there is an opinion that Galileo himself suggested that Hobbes extend the principles of the new natural philosophy to the sphere of human activity. Hobbes' grand idea was the generalization of the science of mechanics and the geometric deduction of human behavior from the abstract principles of the new science of motion. “For, observing that life is only the movement of members... what is the heart if not a spring? What are nerves if not the same threads, and joints - if not the same wheels that impart movement to the whole body the way the master wanted it?”

According to Hobbes, his original contribution to philosophy was his development of optics, as well as his theory of the state. Hobbes's A Short Tract on First Principles is a critique of Aristotle's theory of sensation and an outline of a new mechanics. After returning to England, Hobbes' thoughts turned again to politics - society was seething on the eve of the Civil War. In 1640, just during the famous parliamentary session, he released the treatise “The Elements of Law, Natural and Political,” in which he argued for the need for a single and indivisible sovereign power. This treatise was published later, in 1650, in two parts - “Human Nature” (Human Nature, or the Fundamental Elements of Policie) and on the body politic (De Corpore Politico, or the Elements of Law, Moral and Politic). When Parliament demanded the resignation of the Earl of Strafford, Hobbes, fearing that his openly royalist views could become a threat to his life, fled to the Continent. The treatise “On Citizenship” (De cive) appeared shortly after this, in 1642. The second edition was published in 1647, and the English version in 1651 under the title Philosophical Rudiments Concerning Government and Society. This book is the second most important in Hobbes's ideological legacy after the later Leviathan. In it he attempted to definitively define the proper tasks and boundaries of power, as well as the nature of the relationship between church and state.

Hobbes's originality lay not only in his ideas concerning optics and political theory. He dreamed of building a comprehensive theory that would begin with simple movements described by the postulates of geometry, and end with generalizations about the movement of people in the sphere of political life, as if approaching and moving away from each other. Hobbes proposed the concept of “effort” in order to postulate infinitesimal movements of various kinds - especially those that occur in the environment between a person and external bodies, in the senses and inside the human body. The phenomena of sensation, imagination and sleep are the action of small bodies subject to the law of inertia; phenomena of motivation - reactions to external and internal stimuli (a common place in modern psychology). Hobbes's theory is known that the accumulation of small movements results at the macro level, in the body in the form of two main movements - attraction and aversion, which are approaching or moving away from other bodies.

Hobbes planned to write a philosophical trilogy that would provide an interpretation of the body, man and citizen. Work on this grandiose project was constantly interrupted by events on the political scene and in Hobbes' personal life. He began work on On the Body soon after the publication of On Citizenship, but completed it only after his return to England. De Homine appeared in 1658. When the young Prince Charles (the future Charles II) was forced to flee to Paris after defeat at the Battle of Naseby, Hobbes put aside his thoughts on physics and began working on his masterpiece, Leviathan , or the matter, form and power of the state, ecclesiastical and civil" (Leviathan, or the Matter, Forme, and Power of a Commonwealth, Ecclesiastical and Civil, 1651), in which he succinctly and sharply formulated his views on man and the state. He was invited to the prince as a mathematics teacher - a position that he had to leave due to a serious illness that almost brought him to the grave.

Hobbes's position in Paris became very dangerous after the death in 1648 of Mersenne, his friend and patron. Hobbes was suspected of atheism and anti-Catholicism. Charles I was executed in 1649, and until 1653, when Cromwell became Lord Protector, there was constant debate about the proper form of government. Leviathan appeared just in time, and the arguments it presented and Hobbes’s reluctance to be too close to Prince Charles allowed him to ask Cromwell for permission to return to his homeland. Leviathan proves, on the one hand, that sovereigns are authorized to rule on behalf of their subjects, and not by God's will - exactly the same as was said in parliament; on the other hand, Hobbes used social contract theory to argue that the logical outcome of a state based on social consent should be the absolute power of the sovereign. Therefore, his teaching could be used to justify any form of government, whichever prevailed at that time.

Leviathan is usually considered a work on political themes. However, the author’s views regarding the nature of the state are preceded by theses about man as a natural being and a “machine”, and end with lengthy polemical arguments about what the “true religion” should be. Almost half of the entire volume of Leviathan is devoted to discussion of religious issues.

Hobbes's political analysis, his concepts of the "state of nature" and community were based on mechanistic psychology. Underneath the phenomena of social behavior, Hobbes believed, hidden are fundamental reactions of attraction and disgust, which turn into the desire for power and the fear of death. People, driven by fear, united into a community, renouncing the right of unlimited self-assertion in favor of the sovereign and authorizing him to act on their behalf. If people, out of concern for their safety, agreed to such a social contract, then the power of the sovereign must be absolute; otherwise, torn apart by conflicting claims, they will always be in danger of the anarchy inherent in a non-contractual state of nature.

In the realm of moral philosophy, Hobbes also developed a naturalistic theory as a consequence of his mechanistic concept of man. The rules of civilized behavior (called natural law in Hobbes's time), he believed, were derived from the rules of prudence, which should be accepted by all who have reason and strive to survive. Civilization is based on fear and calculating selfishness, and not on our natural sociality. By good we mean simply that which we desire; by evil is what we strive to avoid. Being a fairly consistent thinker, Hobbes believed in determinism and believed that the volitional act is simply the last attraction in the process of deliberation, immediately adjacent to action or refusal to act.

In legal theory, Hobbes is famous for his concept of law as the commandment of the sovereign, which was an important step in clarifying the difference between statutory law (then nascent) and common law.

Hobbes viewed religion not as a system of truths, but as a system of laws; Leviathan occupies a large place in proving that there is every reason - from common sense and from Scripture - to believe that the sovereign is the best interpreter of the will of God. Hobbes consistently distinguished between knowledge and faith and believed that we cannot know anything about the attributes of God. The words in which we describe God are expressions of our love, not products of the mind. He was especially indignant when defending the “true religion” from the double threat of Catholicism and Puritanism, which appealed to an authority other than that of the sovereign - to the authority of the pope or to the voice of conscience. Hobbes did not hesitate to take a mechanistic approach to the concepts of Scripture and believed that God must have a body, albeit rarefied enough to be said to exist as a substance.

Many modern philosophers emphasize the importance of the concept of language put forward by Hobbes, in which the mechanistic theory of the origin of speech was combined with nominalism in the interpretation of the meaning of general terms. Hobbes criticized the scholastic doctrine of essences, showing that this and other similar doctrines arise from the incorrect use of various classes of terms. Names can be names of bodies, names of properties, or names of names themselves. If we use names of one type instead of names of another type, we end up with absurd statements. For example, "universal" is a name to designate a class of names, not the entities allegedly called by those names; such names are called universals by virtue of their use, and not because they designate a special class of objects. Thus, Hobbes anticipated the ideas of many philosophers of the 20th century, who preached the ideals of clarity and used the theory of language to criticize metaphysical teachings that populated the world with “unnecessary” entities. Hobbes also insisted that language is essential to reasoning, and that it is the faculty of reasoning (in the sense of making definitions and drawing conclusions in general terms) that distinguishes man from animals.

Returning to England at the end of 1651, Hobbes soon entered into a debate with Bishop Bramhall over the issue of free will. The result was his work “The Questions Concerning Liberty, Necessity, and Chance” (1656). He then found himself embroiled in the most humiliating controversy of his life, for in the twentieth chapter of On the Body, the first of an ambitious trilogy published in 1655, Hobbes proposed a method for calculating the squaring of a circle. This was noticed by John Wallis (1616-1703), professor of geometry, and Seth Ward, professor of astronomy. Both of them were Puritans and were among the founders of the Royal Society in London, which Hobbes never had the chance to join. The professors were irritated by Hobbes' criticism of the university education system and retaliated by pointing out his ignorance of mathematics. This was not difficult to do, since Hobbes began studying geometry at the age of forty, and Descartes had already pointed out the amateurish nature of his proofs. The scandal lasted about twenty years and often took the form of personal attacks on both sides. Hobbes's work “Six Lessons to the Professors of Mathematics in the University of Oxford, 1656” dates back to this time; “Dialogues on Physics, or on the Nature of Air” (Dialogus Physicus, sive de Natura Aeris, 1661); "Mr. Hobbes Considered in His Loyalty, Religion, Reputation and Manners, 1662) and other works of a polemical nature directed against Wallis, R. Boyle and other scholars united around the Royal Society.

However, Hobbes's energy, remarkable for a man of his age (at seventy he was still playing tennis), was not entirely spent on these hopeless disputes. In 1658 he published the second part of the trilogy - the treatise “On Man”. Then regrettable events occurred that stopped the flow of his publications. During the Restoration, despite the fact that Hobbes was presented to the court, and the king greatly appreciated his wit, he became a victim of the prejudices and fear that gripped society at that time. They were looking for a reason for God's displeasure, which was expressed in a terrible plague epidemic and a severe fire in London (in 1664-1665 and 1666, respectively), and a bill against atheism and blasphemy was discussed in parliament. A commission was created whose task was to study Leviathan on this subject. However, the case was soon closed, apparently after the intervention of Charles II.

However, Hobbes was forbidden to publish essays on current topics, and he took up historical research. In 1668, the work “Behemoth, or the Long Parliament” was completed - a history of the civil war from the point of view of his philosophy of man and society; the work was published after the death of the thinker, no earlier than 1692. Having read F. Bacon’s Elements of the Common Law of England, which his friend John Aubrey (1626-1697) sent him, Hobbes, at the age of 76, wrote the work “Dialogues between a philosopher and a student of the common law of England” (Dialogues between a Philosopher and a Student of the Common Laws of England), published posthumously in 1681.

At the age of 84, the philosopher wrote an autobiography in poetic form in Latin, and two years later, due to the impossibility of better application of his efforts, he translated the Iliad (1675) and then the Odyssey (1676) of Homer. In 1675 he left London, moving to Chatsworth, and in 1679 he learned of his imminent inevitable death. It is said that, upon hearing of his incurable illness, Hobbes remarked: At last I will find a loophole and get out of this world. He amused himself by allowing his friends to prepare gravestone epitaphs for future use. Most of all he liked the words: This is the true philosopher's stone. Hobbes died at Hardwick Hall (Derbyshire) on December 4, 1679, where he was buried in the Cavendish family crypt.

An inscription was made on the tombstone that he was a just man and well known for his learning at home and abroad. This is true, and although there has been endless noisy debate about his views, no one has ever doubted that Hobbes was a complete person and possessed of outstanding intellect and remarkable wit. (5)

Thomas Hobbes is an English thinker. He considered natural human reason to be the source of philosophy, and therefore strictly separated it from religion, based on the authority of Holy Scripture. Philosophy, in his opinion, should be scientific, reliable knowledge and bring practical benefit to man and society. In his works (“On the Body”, “On Man”, “Leviathan”) Hobbes examines the problems of scientific knowledge and language, human nature and the rational structure of the state. The philosopher became famous for his socio-political theory, which has not lost its relevance today.

The essence and purpose of philosophy

According to Hobbes, the subject of philosophy is bodies, the origin and properties of which can be known. In accordance with the classification of bodies into natural (natural bodies and humans) and artificial (state), he identified natural philosophy (philosophy of nature) and civil (moral and political philosophy). Hobbes excludes from philosophy theology and any doctrine of incorporeal entities, as well as poorly founded doctrines (for example, astrology) and “knowledge of fact” (natural and political history). Philosophy is theoretical, substantiated and true knowledge, “achieved through correct reasoning.” Geometry should serve as a model for it. The thinker saw the purpose of philosophy in foreseeing the results of our actions, primarily in social and political life. The ultimate goal of philosophy is to accurately determine the measure of justice in the state, which should be established by reasonable laws. After all, following them ensures stability and peace in society, and ignorance of them leads to civil war.

Doctrine of knowledge

By nature, man, like animals, receives knowledge through sensory perception and memory. However, as a supreme intelligent being, he is capable of reasoning. Through reasoning, a person comes to reliable, scientific knowledge. The ability to reason, according to Hobbes, is not given by nature, but is developed through diligence.

Initially, thoughts arise as a result of sensation, but they cannot be retained in memory for long. Therefore, people began to designate them with names (words). The connection of names forms speech. Names act as marks for remembering thoughts, and as signs for communicating and clarifying thoughts to other people. Marks are significant only for ourselves, and signs are significant for others. Names do not follow from the nature of things, but are given to things arbitrarily. Therefore, the name reflects our idea of ​​a thing, and not the thing itself. This theory of the origin of language is called conventional, i.e. negotiable. All things are individual, but the names that relate to them are universal (tree, table, horse, etc. - except for proper names). Hobbes comes from the position of nominalism, considering only individual things to really exist, and general concepts to be only names.

Combinations of names form statements, and statements according to the laws of logic are combined into reasoning. Reliable, i.e. scientific knowledge is obtained through correct reasoning. Science must start from the correct definitions of names, which are first principles that do not need proof, and go further, establishing “the consistent dependence of one statement on another.” Hobbes calls reasoning calculus, which boils down to adding and subtracting a sequence of names. Thus, true knowledge is achieved through correct reasoning, and is knowledge of the sequence of names, not the sequence of things. “The truth can only be in what is said, and not in the things themselves.” In this case, truth is determined by the correctness of the statement and is a property of speech, not things.

Scientific knowledge, according to Hobbes, can be obtained by two ways of reasoning, or methods: 1) knowledge of consequences based on a reliably known cause (as in geometry); 2) knowledge of the cause based on experimentally established consequences (as in empirical physics). However, Hobbes gives preference to the first method, because “it is more valuable to know how we can use the reasons available.” Hobbes views knowledge from the point of view of practical use. Philosophy should “promote the good of the human race” by ensuring stability and peace in society. In this regard, it becomes clear why the most important part of Hobbes's teaching is political philosophy.

Civic philosophy

Hobbes conceived civil philosophy as the science of an artificial body (the state) in the image of Galilean physics. Imitating nature, people created an artificial man - the state, or Leviathan (biblical monster, mortal God, to whom people owe their peace and protection). In his work of the same name, Hobbes comprehends the nature of man, the origin of the state and its proper organization.

Political philosophy, according to Hobbes, should be based on knowledge of human nature. What is the most significant thing about it? People are naturally equal in terms of mental and physical abilities. They are selfish and vain, striving for power, fame and pleasure. The highest good for a person is life and health, and evil is death. Therefore, a person has a natural right to use any means to preserve his own life. Otherwise, good and evil are relative, because for everyone they are different depending on his character, habits and way of thinking. “It follows from this that the science of the morality of man as such, taken outside the state organization, cannot be built, because there is no definite measure for virtues and vices.” Only in the state there is such a measure - these are civil laws. Virtue, or justice, consists in obeying laws, and vice, or injustice, in breaking them.

In the natural state of society, before the formation of the state, everyone has absolute freedom and has the right to everything, because of which the interests of people constantly collide. Rivalry, mistrust and thirst for glory are the reasons why people are in a state of “war of all against all.” No one has any guarantees of safety, everyone relies on themselves. However, the sense of self-preservation, the desire for well-being and the hope of acquiring it through their labor incline people towards peace. The conditions of the world suggest to a person the dictates of reason, or natural laws, according to which “it is forbidden to do what is detrimental to his life and that deprives him of the means to preserve it, and to neglect what he considers the best means for preserving life.” Hobbes identifies two basic natural laws: 1) the desire for peace and following it; 2) renunciation of the right to everything, i.e. limitation by everyone of their freedom to the extent necessary for peaceful existence. The rest of natural laws can be reduced to the rule “do not do to others what you would not wish for yourself.” These are unchanging and eternal moral laws bequeathed to people by God. The divine covenants “contain the foundation of all justice and all civil obedience.”

However, without power to keep people in fear and under threat of punishment, everyone cannot be forced to follow natural laws. Therefore, people enter into a social contract among themselves, which is a “mutual transfer of rights.” This occurs by the people giving up some of their natural rights and transferring them to an elected person (a person or an assembly) called the sovereign. Every man makes the sovereign his representative, and thereby acknowledges all his actions and judgments as his own. Therefore, no act of the sovereign can be unlawful, he cannot be tried, executed or overthrown. The people vest the sovereign with supreme power to compel them to fulfill the treaty and direct their actions towards the common good. Using power and force, the sovereign must bring all the wills of citizens into one single will and direct it to preserve internal peace and protection from external enemies. Such a real unity of people, embodied in one person, is called a state. “The state is a single person, for the action of which a great multitude of people have made themselves responsible by mutual agreement among themselves, so that that person may use the power and means of all of them as he deems necessary for peace and the common defense.”

Since the sovereign himself is not bound by treaty, he retains all natural rights and freedom, and has absolute, indivisible power. He concentrates in his hands the legislative, judicial and executive powers, has the non-transferable and indivisible rights to declare war and make peace, reward and punish, prohibit opinions and teachings (the right of censorship). The church must be subordinate to the state. The dictates of religion, which serve as the basis of morality, should be carried out as law. In turn, “divine law commands us to obey higher authorities, i.e. laws established by the supreme rulers." As for citizens, they are completely obedient to the sovereign and must follow the civil laws (which include natural laws). The freedom of citizens extends only to actions about which the law is silent. However, if there is a threat to his own life, a citizen may not obey the sovereign, because the right to defend one's life is inalienable.

So, according to Hobbes, philosophy, which he actually equated with science, cognizes the causes, origin and properties of material (natural and artificial) bodies. Reliable knowledge regarding these subjects can be achieved through correct reasoning, which comes down to establishing connections and dependencies between judgments (i.e. rationally). However, “knowledge is only the path to power.” It should bring practical benefits to people, and, first of all, ensure the creation of a strong state.

Hobbes considered the reason for the emergence of the state to be the voluntary conclusion of a social contract between people to establish supreme power in order to ensure peace and security. Hobbes's "social contract theory" as a theory of the natural origin of the state played and continues to play a major role in the development of social theory. For a state to be strong, state power must be absolute. Only such power will be able to ensure justice in society, which, according to the thinker, lies in the observance of laws. Following the laws leads to the preservation of peace, but ignorance and violation of them leads to civil war. Indeed, strong government can unite people into a single whole, provide them with employment and well-being, and protect them from external enemies. However, the concentration of absolute power in one hand and the lack of opportunity for citizens to influence their representative are very dangerous. The proof of this is the totalitarian regimes of all times, as history has shown.

Hobbes's ideas about the artificial origin of language and its symbolic nature, about the importance of clarity of language in science and philosophy were far ahead of their time and were revived again in the twentieth century.