Emily - Hobbes

The English civil war was a battle which lasted 7 years between the parliament and the royalists of England. This was a big part in Thomas Hobbes ( 1588-1679) life, for this affected his views on society and government majorly. He thought that people were greedy and violent and not capable of governing themselves.  I believe Hobbes is the best philosopher because he has the most reason and I think without absolute power.

Hobbes grew up in England and had his father abandon him, his mother, older brother and younger sister when Hobbes was at a very young age. Hobbes was educated Westport church, the, Malmesbury school and then he went to a private school. In about 1603 he went to Magdalen Hall, which is basically Hertford College, Oxford. The principal at the institution l John Wilkinson was a Puritan, a group of English Protestants who became a major political force in England and received power because of the Civil war, and he had some influence on Hobbes and his views.

Hobbes had two huge aspects to his picture of human nature: what motivates human beings to act is very important to him. The other aspect concerns human powers of judgment and reasoning, in which Hobbes was very iffy about. He wanted to see the worst in people and he tried to back it up with science and a lot of personal belief based of his own experiences. Hobbes had many reasons for thinking that human judgment was undependable, and needed to be guided by science. Human judgment is often centered around that persons own benefit at the particular moment.

In Hobbes’s eyes governments were created to protect people from their own greed and evil. Hobbes liked the idea of the a king because he felt a country needed an authority figure to provide leadership. Because the people were only interested their own benefit, Hobbes believed democracy would never work. Even though he didn’t like democracy he thought that a diverse group of representatives would keep a king from being unfair. This, in my eyes, is why I believe Hobbes truly stands outs among the rest of the philosophers.

Hobbes is often looked at like he is cruel and unusually bitter about people in general and what they are all about; but I believe that if someone had to live through your father leaving you at a very young age and through the civil war, they would think people are selfish and awful. I think Hobbes views an society and government are the most realistic and can apply to many people out there today, and for this reason I think Thomas Hobbes is the best philosopher.  

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