HOBBES, hebz, THOMAS: English philosopher; b. at Malmesbury, Wiltshire, Apr. 5, 1588; d. at Hardwick Hall (17 m. n.n.e. of Derby), Derbyshire, Dec. 4, 1679. He was educated at Magdalen Hall, Oxford (B.A., 1608), and upon his graduation was recommended to William Cavendish, afterward first

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earl of Devonshire, as tutor for his eldest son. This was the beginning of a lifelong intimacy with the Cavendiahes. After the death of the second earl, his pupil and patron, he became tutor to the third earl of Devonshire, who in turn became his friend and patron. In his capacity as tutor Hobbes traveled extensively in Europe, meeting many distinguished people and forming friendships with Galileo, Mersenne Gaesendi, and others. In London he met Francis Bacon, Ben Jonaon, Lord Herbert of Cherbury. John Selden, and William Harvey. At the beginning of the Long Parliament in 1640 Hobbes fled to Paris, where in 1646 he became mathematical tutor to the prince of Wales, afterward Charles II. His position in Paris having become difficult by reason of suspicions as to his orthodoxy, he returned to England in 1651, submitted to the new government, resumed his position in the household of his patron, and set about finishing his philosophical system. At the Restoration he received a pension of £100 from Charles II. He now engaged in several controversies, both religious and scientific. He attributed his exclusion from the founders of the Royal Society to the malignity of his opponents. In his later years he busied himself by translating Homer and writing in Latin verse his autobiography and an ecclesiastical history.

In epistemology and psychology Hobbes was a sensualist, in metaphysics almost a materialist, and in ethics a hedonist. The only source of knowledge, he maintains, is sensation, the only objects of knowledge are bodies, either natural or political, and the only end of action is self-interest. He regarded motion as the ultimate fact of existence, and self-love as the fundamental law of nature. His political philosophy, his greatest achievement, is based upon these general views. The State, as he argued in his beat known work, Leviathan, is a contrivance for putting an end to the war of all against all, in the interest of the pursuit of happiness. That there may be no disturbing dissensions, the power of the sovereign must be absolute. This power is merely delegated to him, and is in no sense original or divine. Against Grotius, Hobbes maintained that the social compact is not between the sovereign and his subjects, but between the subjects to obey the sovereign. This absolutism gives rise to the distinctions of good and bad. Whatever the sovereign commands is good, whatever he forbids is bad. Hobbea_proposed to remove the evils of sectarian animosity by completely subordinating the ecclesiastical to the secular authority, thus making religion dependent upon the whim of the absolute ruler. In 1666 his views were condemned by the House of Commons, and thereafter he was not permitted to publish anything relating to human conduct.

On account of his rationalistic treatment of religious doctrine Hobbes might well be called the second deist, just as Herbert of Cherbury has been called the first (see Deism). In his day he produced an intellectual ferment comparable only to that produced by Darwinism; and even till the middle of the eighteenth century Hobbism remained a term of reproach. Among his assailants were John Bramhall, Thomas Tenison, John Eachard, Ralph

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Cudworth, Henry More, Richard Cumberland, and Samuel Clarke. Though in bad repute at home, abroad Hobbes stood higher as a thinker than any of his contemporaries. His associational psychology and hedonistic ethics were revived by the English utilitarians. Hobbes's principal works are De cive (Paris, 1642; Amsterdam, 1647; Eng. transl., 1651); De corpore (London, 1655; Eng. transl., 1656); The Elements of Law, Natural and Politic (ed. F. T6nnies, 1889), which was originally published in two parts, Human Nature, or the Fundamental Elements of Policy (1650), and De corpore politico, or the Elements of Law, Moral and Politic (1650); Leviathan, or the Matter, Form, and Power of a Commonwealth, Ecclesiastical and Civil (1651; Lat. transl., Amsterdam, 1668; ed. A. R. Waller, Cambridge, 1904), his most 1m portant work; Of Liberty and Necessity (London, 1654); Concerning Liberty, Necessity and Chance (1656); and Behemoth (1679; ed. F. Tbnnies, 1889), a history of the Civil War. Hobbes's Opera philo Sophica were published at Amsterdam in 1668, and his Moral and Political Works at London in 1750. The standard edition is that of Sir W. Molesworth, English Works (1.1 vols., 1839-45) and Opera. philo sophica (5 vols., 1839-45).

Bibliography: Lists of literature, covering the contro versies which Hobbes caused, are in J. M. Baldwin, Dic tionary of Philosophy and Psychology, iii. 1, pp. 264-268. New York, 1905, and in the British Museum Catalogue and Supplement. His autobiography, in Latin verse, was published London, 1679, Eng, transl., ib. 1680. Consult: G. C. Robertson, Hobbes, in Philosophical Classics, London, 1901 (eminently satisfactory); J. G. Buhle, Geschichte der neueren Philosophie, iii. 223-325, Göttingen, 1802; F. D. Maurice, Modern Philosophy, pp. 235-290, London, 1862; V. Cousin, Philosophie sensualiste, pp. 212 310, Paris, 1866; J. Hunt, in Contemporary Review, vii (1868), 185-207; B. Wille, Der Phanamenalismus yes Thomas Hobbes, Kiel, 1889; G. Lyon, Philosophie de Hobbes, Paris, 1893; H. Schwartz, Die Lehre yon den Sinnesqualitdten bei Descartes and Hobbes, Halle, 1894; F. TSnnies, Hobbes' Leben and Lehre, Stuttgart, 1896; J. Aubrey, Letters . . . and Lives of Eminent Men, ed. A. Clark, i. 321-403, Oxford, 1898; W. Dilthey, in Archiv Air Geschichte der Philosophie, xiii (1900), 307 360, 445-482; DNB, xxvii. 37-45; M. W. Calkins, Metaphysical System of Hobbes, London, 1905; and the discussions in the standard works on the history of philosophy.