>>>>17th century England was to be one of the most important times and places in intellectual
history, a turning point in the history of ideas. 17th century England was home to the
Scientific Revolution characterized by the thought of Bacon and Newton. 17th century
England is where the Enlightenment has its roots. The Enlightenment, a period of intellectual
history that begins in the late 17th century, and endures across the 18th century. And no
figure stands so clearly at the beginnings of the Enlightenment as a man named Thomas
Hobbes. Hobbes' political thought was shaped by the events of the world around him, in
particular the English Civil War but it would represent in some ways a fundamental break
with political thought going back to the ancient traditions. In fact, stretching back to Aristotle.
Hobbes would start a conversation about the nature of law, about the nature of justice,
about the nature of political society that would send the conversation off in entirely
new directions. But at the same time, Hobbes himself is battling against forms of political
thought that have deep roots in the ancient world and were in fact revitalized in Hobbes'
own day. Thomas Hobbes, he lived from 1588 to 1679 in one of the most tumultuous periods
in English history. He was the son of a quite disreputable clergyman, there are very colorful
stories about his father involved in drunken brawls all through Saturday night and then
trying to come to church on Sunday morning. Thomas Hobbes nevertheless proved himself
a brilliant thinker. He went to Oxford at the beginning of the 17th century where he
excelled. He would go on and become deeply learned in the thought of his own time period,
but also of the ancient world. Hobbes published a translation out of the ancient Greek of
the Greek historian Thucydides. Thucydides we've encountered as the historian who preserves
for us the funeral oration of Pericles, the great Democratic statement of Athens. Thucydides
is not only one of the greatest ancient historians, he too was a deep political thinker and Thucydides
brand of history is considered realism because Thucydides had a deeply realistic view about
humans, about human nature, about what motivated humans. And in Thucydides' history of the
war between Athens and Sparta, his great chronicle of what's called the Peloponnesian War, Thucydides
offers an account of the motives that drive the Athenians that drive the Spartans and
their allies and he gives a cold-blooded analysis of what really drove their search for empire
and power and glory. One of the most famous episodes in Thucydides' "History of the Peloponnesian
War" is an encounter between the Athenians and the inhabitants of a small island Melos,
and Thucydides preserves an extraordinary dialogue between the Athenians and the Melians.
The Athenians a great enormous power who clearly have the ability to destroy the Melians, and
the Melians protest the Athenians intentions to destroy their city. And they make claims
for justice. They say that it would be unjust for the Athenians to overtake their island,
but the Athenians in Thucydides' history simply scoff at this claim, scoff at the very idea
that there is any such thing as justice that can't be reduced to mere interest. Hobbes
translates Thucydides' "History of the Peloponnesian War" this dark vision of what truly drives
human beings, and there's a deep connection there because Thomas Hobbes himself would
become famous for his bleak view of human nature and his realistic view of what motivates
human beings as individuals. Hobbes was a royalist and when England descended into civil
war in the 1640s Hobbes himself would go to Paris, where he was in the safe environment
of a foreign country as forces under the command of Cromwell proclaimed England a commonwealth
and overthrew the king, Charles I. It was in the midst of this bloody civil war in England
waged between the King, Charles and his defenders and the parliamentarians, those who wish to
declare England a free Republic that Thomas Hobbes composed the work for which he is most
famous, a book called "The Leviathan." "The Leviathan" is a profound defense of royal
power and what makes "The Leviathan" so significant is that Hobbs provides a defense of royal
power in England that is independent of any Christian claim to the kingship. It's a purely
secular defense of the royal power in England. Hobbes articulates this defense of royal power
against those who favored the supremacy and the sovereignty of the Parliament in England,
and Hobbes will offer an account of why the king's power in this society was just, legitimate,
authoritative, sovereign, that is the message of "The Leviathan", written in its specific
moment in time and yet the ways in which Thomas Hobbes would justify royal power would forever
change the nature of political philosophy.