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THOMAS HOBBES (1588-1679)

By: Nathan Nash



The philosophy of Thomas Hobbes is the most complete materialist philosophy of the 17th century. Hobbes rejects Cartesian dualism and believes in the mortality of the soul. He rejects free will in favor of determinism, a determinism that treats freedom doing what you want. "The universe is corporeal; all that is real is material, and what is not material is not real”, this quote states his view on how he views life, and what’s real and unreal. Hobbes is perhaps most famous for his political philosophy. "Men in a state of nature, that is a state without civil government, are in a war of all against all in which life is hardly worth living". The way out of this desperate state is to make a social contract and establish the state to keep peace and order. Because of his view of how nasty life is without the state, Hobbes subscribes to a very authoritarian version of the social contract, and his views stood out during his time, and had a impact in the Enlightenment.

Timeline- "Hobbes, Thomas." Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 1967. Site- http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/phl302/philosophers/hobbes.html

Jean-Jacques Rousseau //By Michele Hopson//

Jean-Jacques Rousseau was a Philosopher from Geneva, Switzerland. Born on June 28, 1712 he grew up to be a very well known modernist. His way of though was that man is mainly good, but inky when in the “state of true nature”. He said that good people are made unhappy by their experience in society. He viewed society as "synthetic" and "dishonest" and that if society goes on like that it will result in the continuing unhappiness of man and he wanted to change this. “Never exceed your rights, and they will soon become unlimited” (Rousseau). By saying this he meant that if you don’t break the rules people give you, then soon those rules wont be rules anymore. They fill fall flat because they have unnecessary reasons to be followed. Rousseau was one of the first modern writers to seriously attack the institution of private property, and therefore is considered a forebear of modern socialism and Communism.

Lucid café: Library. November 9, 2008. Jean-Jacques Rousseau. August 6, 2009. 