Born in Westport near Malmesbury, Wiltshire, England

April 5, 1588-December 4, 1679

The Elements of Law and Natural Politic

Leviathan (1651)

Background

Spanish armada

Fathers name: Thomas Sr.

Robert Latimer

John Wilkinson

• Studied at Oxford University in England

• Main interests are Political Philosophy. History,

Ethics and Geometry

• Influenced by Aristotle, Thucydides, Tacitus, Rene

Descartes, and Hugo Grotius

• Modern founder of the social contract tradition;

life in the state of nature is "solitary, poor,

nasty, brutish and short”.

Physical doctrine of emotion

Physical momentum

The Elements of Law, Natural & Politic

De Cive or in English “The Philosophical Rudiments Concerning Government and Societyin 1651”

Mathematical instructor Young Charles

Prince of Wales

Political crisis resulting to war

The state: “great artificial man or monster” (LEVIATHAN)

The Leviathan

A condition wherein there is the absence of government

Hobbes terms this situation “the condition of mere nature”, a state of perfectly private judgment, in which there is no agency with recognized authority to arbitrate disputes and effective power to enforce its decisions.

Hobbes assumes that people generally “shun death”, and that the desire to preserve their own lives is very strong in most people.

Hobbes ascribes to each person in the state of nature a liberty right to preserve herself, which he terms “the right of nature”.

The state of nature is the state of war.

It is “the war of all against all”.

The right of each to all things invites serious conflict, especially if there is competition for resources, as there will surely be over at least scarce goods.

Conflict will be further fuelled by disagreement in religious views, in moral judgments, and over matters as mundane as what goods one actually needs, and what respect one properly merits.

A form of government represented by a sea monster wherein the head symbolizes the sole ruler of the state and the body composes of the people or the citizens of the state.

Hobbes believed that an absolute monarchy - a government that gave all power to a king or queen -was best. Its powers must be neither divided nor limited.

Needed to suppress or prevent the state of nature that can eventually lead to a state of war.

State of Nature

The government -

represented by Leviathan ‘sea

monster’

State of WarCan eventually

lead to a

Needed to suppress or prevent

The Summary of the Leviathan

BOOKS AND WRITINGS

1707- “Arithmetica”1707-1708- “Philosophical Commentaries”1709- “An Essay Towards a New Theory of Vision”1710- “A Treatise Concerning the Principle of Human Knowledge”1713- “Three Dialogues Between Hylas and Philonous”

TOTAL NUMBERS OF WRITINGS BEING PUBLISHED: 300 WRITINGS from 1707- 1932

CONTRIBUTIONS

TOPHILOSOPHY

“We have no direct ‘idea’ of spirits, albeit we have good reason to believe in the existence of other spirits, for their existence explains the purposeful regularities we find in experience”

(“It is plain that we cannot know the existence of other spirits otherwise than by their operations, or the ideas by them excited in us”, Dialogues #145)

“Reflection on the attributes of that external spirit leads us to identify it with God. Thus a material thing such as an apple consists of a collection of ideas (shape, color, taste, physical properties, etc.) which are caused in the spirits of humans by the spirit of God.”

“There are only two kinds of things: spirits and ideas. Spirits are simple, active beings which produce and perceive ideas; Ideas are passive beings which are produced and perceive.”

“I do not argue against the existence of any one thing that we can apprehend, either by sense ore ref lection. That the things I see with mine eyes and touch with my hands do exist, really exist, I make not the least question. The only thing whose existence we deny, is that which philosophers call mater or corporeal substance. And in doing of this, there is no damage done to the rest of mankind, who, I dare say, will never miss it. ” (Principles #35)

He believed God to be present as an immediate cause of all our experiences.

He concluded that the source of our sensations could only be God; He gave them to man, who had to see in them signs and symbols that carried God's word.

Berkeley believed that God is not the distant engineer of Newtonian machinery that in the fullness of time led to the growth of a tree in the university quadrangle. Rather, the perception of the tree is an idea that God's mind has produced in the mind, and the tree continues to exist in the quadrangle when "nobody" is there, simply because God is an infinite mind that perceives all.

Berkeley's proof of the existence of God:

Whatever power I may have over my own thoughts, I find the ideas actually perceived by Sense have not a like dependence on my will. When in broad daylight I open my eyes, it is not in my power to choose whether I shall see or no, or to determine what particular objects shall present themselves to my view; and so likewise as to the hearing and other senses; the ideas imprinted on them are not creatures of my will. There is therefore some other Will or Spirit that produces them. (Berkeley. Principles #29)

“There is not any substance other than spirit.”

Berkeley rejects Locke’s belief that the world only contains two fundamental stuffs – Mind and Matter

Berkeley disagrees that there is any world beyond our ideas.

Berkeley’s Philosophy

Negative:Berkeley’s Project can be seen as fundamentally destructive. He seeks to tear down an edifice of confusion.Berkeley has a religious agenda.

Positive:Berkeley wants to motivate men of speculation to behave virtuously. In this way, Berkeley’s philosophy should be seen as motivational and even inspirational

Agon, Tiffany

Abenilla, Erica Vanessa

Besa, Edjhonmar

DelaCruz, Jhoana Marie

Magay,Gabriel

Panagsagan, Zoe

Sulit, Paula Jane