Thomas Hobbes, although he was born 8 years prior to Descartes, lived nearly 30 years past the death of the latter (1588-1679) and as such was the contemporary of most all of the great thinkers of the 17th century, in particular Bacon, Galileo, Descartes and Newton. While Hobbes is certainly most well known for his account of how the social contract allows man to leave the state of nature, which is “nasty, poor, solitary, brutish and short,” his account of the social contract really only makes sense when seen in the context of his metaphysics, which I find to be far more interesting. In this post we will discuss Hobbes’ metaphysics as well as his account of the nature of man and finally how the social contract relates to both of these. (more…)
