Thomas Hobbes In His Time

Thomas Hobbes in His Time The University of Minnesota Press gratefully acknowledges the support for its program of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. This book is one of those in whose financing the Foundation's grant played a part. THOMAS HOBBES IN HIS TIME Edited by Ralph Ross Herbert W. Schneider Theodore Waldman UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA PRESS MINNEAPOLIS © Copyright 1974 by the University of Minnesota. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America at Kingsport Press, Kingsport, Tennessee. Published in the United Kingdom and India by the Oxford University Press, London and Delhi, and in Canada by Burns & MacEachern Limited, Don Mills, Ontario Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 74-83134 ISBN 0-8166-0727-3 CONTENTS Thomas Hobbes: Chronology of Chief Events and Writings vii Introduction, by Ralph Ross, Herbert W. Schneider, Theodore Waldman 3 The Motivation of Hobbes's Political Philosophy, by John Dewey 8 The Philosophia Prima of Thomas Hobbes, by Craig Walton Some Puzzles in Hobbes, by Ralph Ross 42 Hobbes on the Generation of a Public Person, by Theodore Waldman 61 The Piety of Hobbes, by Herbert W. Schneider 84 Hobbes's Anglican Doctrine of Salvation, by Paul J. Johnson 102 Notes 129 Recent Studies of Hobbes: A Selected Bibliography 136 Index 143 v 31 This page intentionally left blank THOMAS HOBBES: CHRONOLOGY OF CHIEF EVENTS AND WRITINGS 1588 1608 1608-28; 1631—40; 1652-79 1610-13 1623-24 (approx.) 1628 1628-31 1634—37 Born at Malmesbury. His birth was premature; according to him his mother was terrorized by the approach of the Spanish Armada. "Fear was my twin." Baccalaureate in classical studies at Oxford University; his college, Magdalen, was under Puritan administration. He was a member of the household of the Earl of Devonshire, William Cavendish; first as tutor, then secretary, traveling companion. The major part of Hobbes's papers are housed at the Chatsworth estate of the Cavendish family. They also had a London residence. First trip to France and Italy. Secretary to Francis Bacon at his estate in St. Albans. Hobbes translated some of the Essays into Latin. Walks and conversations with Bacon in the garden; social events attended by literary notables. Published translation of the Eight Books of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides. "Interpreted with faith and diligence immediately out of the Greek." Second voyage to the Continent. Third voyage to the Continent. Met Galileo in Florence, began correspondence with scientists, and invn viii THOMAS HOBBES IN His TIME tensive work on geometry and optics. "A Short Tract on First Principles" reflects his attempts to adapt his Oxford studies to the methods of the Padua School and Galileo, to William Harvey's ideas on motions in vital bodies, and to the theories of Light of the Oxford Franciscans, Grosseteste and Roger Bacon. This Tract was first published in 1889 as an appendix to Tonnies's edition of The Elements of Law. 1636 In a letter to the Earl of Newcastle he discusses the foundations for a genuine science of law. Following the Earl's suggestion he begins to work on this foundation. Mar. 9, 1640 He writes in his Epistle Dedicatory to the Earl of Newcastle of his work "The Elements of Law Natural and Politic" as follows: From the two principal parts of our nature, Reason and Passion, have proceeded two kinds of learning: mathematical and dogmatical. . . . They that have written of justice and policy in general, do all invade each other and themselves with contradiction. To reduce this doctrine to the rules and infallibility of reason, there is no way, but first to put such principles down for a foundation, as passion not mistrusting, may not seek to displace; and afterward to build thereon th