STARTING WITH HOBBES Continuum’s Starting with ... series offers clear, concise and access- ible introductions to the key thinkers in philosophy. The books explore and illuminate the roots of each philosopher’s work and ideas, leading readers to a thorough understanding of the key influ- ences and philosophical foundations from which his or her thought developed. Ideal for first-year students starting out in philosophy, the series will serve as the ideal companion to study of this fascinating subject. Available now: Starting with Berkeley, Nick Jones Starting with Derrida, Sean Gaston Starting with Descartes, C. G. Prado Starting with Nietzsche, Ullrich Haase Starting with Rousseau, James Delaney Forthcoming: Starting with Hegel, Craig B. Matarrese Starting with Heidegger, Thomas Greaves Starting with Hume, Charlotte R. Brown and William Edward Morris Starting with Kant, Andrew Ward Starting with Kierkegaard, Patrick Sheil Starting with Leibniz, Lloyd Strickland Starting with Locke, Greg Forster Starting with Merleau-Ponty, Katherine Morris Starting with Mill, John R. Fitzpatrick Starting with Sartre, Gail Linsenbard Starting with Schopenhauer, Sandra Shapshay Starting with Wittgenstein, Chon Tejedor STARTING WITH HOBBES GEORGE MACDONALD ROSS Continuum International Publishing Group The Tower Building 80 Maiden Lane 11 York Road Suite 704 London SE1 7NX New York, NY 10038 www.continuumbooks.com © George MacDonald Ross 2009 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN:HB:1-8470-6160-5 978-1-8470-6160-7 PB: 1-8470-6161-3 978-1-8470-6161-4 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data MacDonald Ross, G. (George) Starting with Hobbes/George MacDonald Ross. p. cm. ISBN 978-1-8470-6160-7 (hardback) – ISBN 978-1-8470-6161-4 (pbk.) 1. Hobbes, Thomas, 1588–1679. I. Title. B1247.M33 2009 192–dc22 2009001160 Typeset by RefineCatch Limited, Bungay, Suffolk Printed and bound in Great Britain by MPG Books Ltd, Bodmin, Cornwall CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 1 i. Abbreviations 5 CHAPTER 1: LIFE AND WORKS 6 i. Early Years 6 ii. The Cavendish Family 7 iii. Tutor to the Second Earl of Devonshire 7 iv. Tutor to Gervase Clifton 9 v. Tutor to the Third Earl of Devonshire 10 vi. Exile in Paris 11 vii. Return to England 14 viii.Last Years 15 CHAPTER 2: THEORY OF KNOWLEDGE 18 i. Medieval Theories of Perception 18 ii. Galileo’s Theory of Perception 19 iii. Descartes’ Theory of Perception 21 iv. Hobbes’s Theory of Perception 22 v. The Nature of Light 24 vi. Special Features of Hobbes’s Account 26 vii. Perception and Action 28 viii.Primary and Secondary Qualities 29 v CONTENTS ix. Scientific Knowledge 33 x. Language 37 xi. Reasoning 42 xii. An Alternative Theory of Meaning 43 CHAPTER 3: MATERIALISM 47 i. Introduction 47 ii. Substance 48 iii. Immaterial Substances 49 iv. The Human Soul 51 v. No Vacuum 56 vi. Universals 59 vii. Truths 66 viii.Infinity 68 ix. Geometry 72 x. Cause 75 xi. Conation 81 xii. Determinism 83 CHAPTER 4: THE HUMAN BEING 88 i. Introduction 88 ii. Appetite and Aversion 89 iii. Good and Evil 91 iv. Deliberation and Will 93 v. Freedom and Determinism 96 vi. The Equality of Humans 100 vii. The State of Nature 103 viii.Natural Laws 106 CHAPTER 5: SOCIETY 110 i. A Science of Society 110 ii. The Making of the Social Contract 114 iii. Was the Social Contract a Historical Event? 117 iv. Commonwealth by Institution and by Acquisition 120 vi CONTENTS v. Monarchy, Aristocracy and Democracy 122 vi. The Indivisibility of Sovereignty 125 vii. Life Under Absolute Rule 126 viii.Freedom of Thought 130 CHAPTER 6: RELIGION 134 i. Hobbes as a Fundamentalist Anglican 134 ii. The Corruption of Christianity by Greek Philosophy 138 iii. The Argument for Belief in the Existence of God 143 iv. God as Material 148 v. The Afterlife 154 CHAPTER 7: HOBBES’S INFLUENCE 161 i. Religion and Political Philosophy 161 ii. Metaphysics 165 iii. Conclusion 171 SOURCES 173 i. Hobbes Texts 173 ii. Other Primary Texts 174 iii. Hobbes’s Biography 174 iv. Hobbes’s Influence 174 CONTINUING WITH HOBBES 176 INDEX 179 vii This page intentionally left blank INTRODUCTION Hobbes had a vision of his complete philosophy as a logically organized system. It would consist of three separate volumes: On Body, On the Human Being and On the Citizen. As it happens, he wrote On the Citizen first, and completed the other two volumes much later. In the present book, I shall outline Hobbes’s philosophy in more or less the order he intended. After the first chapter, on Hobbes’s life and works, I shall begin with his theory of knowledge, which underpins his whole philosophical system. I shall then con- sider his materialism, which is, not surprisingly, the main theme of On Body. Having established to his satisfaction that only material objects exist, Hobbes then gives a materialist account of human psychology. Finally, I cover Hobbes’s explanation of how selfish but vulnerable humans come together to form a civil society. Hobbes’s religion is a pervasive theme throughout his works, and I devote a separate chapter to it. In the final chapter, I say something about the influence of Hobbes’s thought. Hobbes did not write in a vacuum, but was engaged in debate with his contemporaries. He lived during one of the most excit- ing periods in Western thought, which saw the transition from an essentially mediaeval world view in philosophy and science to a modern one. Hobbes was one of the leaders of the modern revolution, and particularly in the early chapters of the book, I establish the contrast between Hobbes’s theories and con- cepts, and those of the ancient and mediaeval philosophers whose world view he was overturning. In addition, I consider similarities 1