Birthdate: 5 April 1588
Nationality: English
Bio:
Thomas Hobbes was a 17th century English philosopher best known for his work on social contract theory. He was born in 1588 in Westport, Wiltshire. Hobbes came from a gentry family but his family fell on hard financial times when he was young. Despite obstacles, he was able to attend Oxford University where he studied classics.
After his university years, Hobbes worked as a tutor to wealthy family’s. During this time his ideas started to take form. He was deeply impacted by the civil war in England and feared unrest. Hobbes believed people were primarily self-interested and that strong central rule was needed to prevent conflict. This would later influence his theories on government and society outlined in his famous work Leviathan.
Leviathan was published in 1651 and established Hobbes’ reputation as a theorist. In it, he proposed people consent to be ruled absolutely by a sovereign authority in exchange for protection of their security and well-being. Without this social contract and central authority, Hobbes believed life would be “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short.” Leviathan was a groundbreaking work that shaped the field of social science and political philosophy for generations to come. Hobbes died in 1679 at the age of 90, leaving a profound legacy through his examination of the relationship between humans and government.
