The Elements Of Law Natural and Politic

Thomas Hobbes' timeless account of the human condition, first developed in The Elements of Law (), which comprises Human Nature and.
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Narrative, Nature, and the Natural Law: From Aquinas to International Human Rights. Fred Alford - - Palgrave-Macmillan. Thomas Hobbes - - Cambridge University Press. The Elements of Law, Natural and Politic. In doing this, Hobbes falls back on Epicurean materialism there are significant differences between the philosophy of Hobbes and Epicurus though.

In the 's, Descartes' philosophy was just taking hold, and would remain influential on the Continent for more than years - it was only in the Enlightenment that Cartesianism gave way to Newton's mechan In The Elements of Law, Natural and Politic , Thomas Hobbes sets out to explain the relationship between phyics, psychology and politics.

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In the 's, Descartes' philosophy was just taking hold, and would remain influential on the Continent for more than years - it was only in the Enlightenment that Cartesianism gave way to Newton's mechanics. Descartes built his philosophy on the notion of dualism: Hobbes, to the contrary, is a monist like Spinoza after him: Based on his materialistic picture of Nature, Hobbes starts by describing physics in terms of mechanics - maybe this was due to his visit to the godfather of mechanics, Galilei?

After this, Hobbes starts to describe the workings of our mental life in terms of motion. Motion is all there is, according to Hobbes, so even human psychology should be explained in terms of motion. And, since states are in effect conglomerations of human beings, we should view politics as a form of mechanics as well. This leads to Hobbes' picture of the social contract - to be explained in more detail in his magnum opus Leviathan - whereby all citizens give up their power to an autoritarian sovereign, who wields absolute power legislative, as well as executive.

This sounds like a plea for dictatorship, and in effect this is exactly what Hobbes is promoting. It is important not to start moralizing right away, and take a look at the time when The Elements of Law and the Leviathan, for that matter were written. Hobbes witnessed the collapse of his society in the English Civil War. During this period, English society collapsed in royal and parlementary factions, with all consequent massacres, persecutions and violoent outburst.

Hobbes saw in this a return to the natural state of mankind. This last point is important, because Hobbes' picture of mankind in nature, is a building block for his political philosophy.

The Elements of Law, Natural and Politic

It is easy to see where Hobbes draws this picture from, considering the events he witnessed during his lifetime. The problem with Hobbes is, for me, that he writes so dry and abstract, that it is sometimes hard to be convinced by the arguments. Hobbes uses the synthetic method: At times, where this method is inapplicable, he resorts to the analytical method: This leads inevitably to abstruse texts.

It makes the works also seem slightly outdated.

6 Elements of Law

An important point to note is that Hobbes was accused by his contemporaries of atheism. And that was a serious offence in 17th century England. It is not hard to see where this accusation comes from: Hobbes thought he was supported in this by Holy Scripture; the earthly resurrection of all deceased human beings is clearly announced in the bible. His religious contemporaries were less convinced and saw Hobbes' philosophy as a threat to religion and rightly so, in my opinion.


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More accessible and condensed than the Leviathan. I recommend this to anyone who wants to understand the heart of Hobbes' philosophy. One person found this helpful. A laborious study that the Founders of America relied heavily on. Not an easy read, but every word is necessary as Hobbes lays out his argument for liberty and how our perceptions color our societies and laws.

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The Elements of Law, Natural and Politic

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