General Introduction

• Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) was a mid-17th century English philosopher who significantly influenced Western political thought.

• Son of a minor clergyman who abandoned the family early, Hobbes was raised by a prosperous uncle.

• At age fifteen, Hobbes was sent to Oxford due to his aptitude for classical languages.

• In 1608, he became a tutor to the son of the Earl of Devonshire, staying with the royal household for life.

• Between 1610 and 1615, Hobbes toured Europe with his pupil William Cavendish, meeting leading scientific and literary figures including Galileo, which profoundly shaped his philosophy.

• In the 1630s, with Cavendish’s rise to royal status, Hobbes became a royalist, supporting the Crown’s authority against critics.

• His major works The Cive (1642) and Leviathan (1651) advocated monarchical government, but rejected the divine right of kings theory by Robert Filmer.

• Hobbes sought a secular basis for sovereign authority rooted in the will and consent of individuals, becoming an early advocate of individualism.

• However, Hobbes ended up championing absolutism, failing to fully realize individual liberty or lay foundations for liberalism.

• His individualism viewed individuals as engaged in power struggles, not as rational agents advancing social progress or their own good.

• Hobbes lived through turbulent times marked by insecurity, famously saying: “Fear and I were born twins and were ever thereafter inseparable.”

• His father’s desertion and the English Civil War (1642-49) deeply influenced his outlook.

• Hobbes believed a strong government was necessary to prevent societal collapse and save civilization.

• He aimed to establish a new science of politics combining his philosophy with emerging scientific standards of inquiry.

• Overall, political chaos of his era motivated his political philosophy, while scientific advances shaped his method.

Divine Right of King

The theory of Divine Right of King holds that the authority of King is derived from God; hence obedience to the King is as imperative as obedience to God. In Europe, this theory was developed during the ascendancy of monarchy. Its chief exponent was Robert Filmer (1588-1653), English political theorist.

Absolutism

Absolutism refers to a form of rule in which all powers of governance are held by a single entity. These powers are not restricted by any legal, constitutional, customary or moral limitations. The subjects are required to submit to the decision or commands of the ruler; they have no opportunity to question or resist his command.

Individualism

Individualism refers to a principle which regards individual as a rational agent. It requires that individual’s dignity, autonomy and judgement should be given full recognition while making public policy and decisions. It upholds a legal, social and political order based on voluntary transactions between individuals for their mutual advantage.

Liberalism

Liberalism refers to a principle of politics which regards ‘liberty’ or ‘freedom’ of individual as the first and foremost goal of public policy. Liberty, in this sense, implies ‘liberation’ from restraints imposed by an established order. This principle was evolved in the West in late seventeenth century in order to liquidate feudal privileges of the land-owning class and to create favourable conditions for the new entrepreneural class to enable them to contribute to social progress. Present-day liberalism regards individual as the fountain of wisdom and the object of welfare.

English Civil War

In the history of England, the Civil War refers to the period of war (1642-49) between Charles I (1600-49) and his Parliamentary opponents. It represented the culmination of the dispute about the privileges and prerogatives of the Parliament versus the Crown. This dispute had existed since the reign of James I (1566-1625). Then during the reign of Charles I, the Parliament challenged the doctrine of divine right of King, and demanded that the appointment of Ministers and decisions about foreign and ecclesiastical affairs as well as taxation should be made on the advice of the Parliament. Charles I did not agree, and instead he dissolved the Parliament. Then he ruled for eleven years (1629-40) without Parliament. Thereafter the well-known ‘Long Parliament’ (1640-53) was convened which unanimously decided to divest the monarchy of all those powers that had enabled it to rule without Parliament. In 1642, Charles I tried to imprison the Five Members who were his severe critics. This resulted in the war between Royalists and Parliamentarians. Charles I himself was executed at the behest of the Parliamentary army in 1649.

Charles II (1630-85) was forced into exile; monarchy was abolished, and a ‘commonwealth’ was set up by the ‘Commons’. The English Civil War dramatically changed the nature of English society and government. However, the attempt to find an alternative to monarchy eventually ended in 1660 with the restoration of Charles II in the wake of the death of Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658).