7. Why was Thomas Hobbes Significant?
Thomas Hobbes is the father of modern political philosophy. A lot of people disagree with his idea that society should accept an unaccountable sovereign political leader. However, the world that Hobbes talked about is still the world that we live in. Everything Thomas Hobbes ever addressed applies to modern day life. Leviathan set upthe base for most of Western political philosophy. Hobbes believed in absolutism for the sovereign and created some of the components of European liberal though. These included the right of the individual; the natural equality of all men; the artificial character of the political order; the view that all legitimate political power must be "representative" and based on the consent of the people; and a liberal interpretation of law which leaves people free to do whatever the law does not explicitly forbid. He was one of the benefactors
of political science as well. His understanding of humans as being matter and motion, following
the same physical laws as other matter and motion is still influential Also he accounted human nature as self-interested cooperation. He also supplied ideas to various other fields such as history, geometry, the physics of gases, theology, ethics, and general philosophy. Hobbes received a reputation in many fields. He was known as a scientist, who dealt with optics, as a mathematician, mostly in geometry, as a translator of the classics, as a writer on law, as an aspirant in metaphysics and epistemology. He also became infamous for his writings and arguments on religious questions. But he is mostly remembered for his writings on morality and politics. Without these, scholars might remember Hobbes as an interesting intellectual of the seventeenth century; but few philosophers would even recognize his name. (5)
of political science as well. His understanding of humans as being matter and motion, following
the same physical laws as other matter and motion is still influential Also he accounted human nature as self-interested cooperation. He also supplied ideas to various other fields such as history, geometry, the physics of gases, theology, ethics, and general philosophy. Hobbes received a reputation in many fields. He was known as a scientist, who dealt with optics, as a mathematician, mostly in geometry, as a translator of the classics, as a writer on law, as an aspirant in metaphysics and epistemology. He also became infamous for his writings and arguments on religious questions. But he is mostly remembered for his writings on morality and politics. Without these, scholars might remember Hobbes as an interesting intellectual of the seventeenth century; but few philosophers would even recognize his name. (5)