Thomas Hobbes was born at Westport, now known

as Wiltshire, England in April 5, 1588. Hobbes was

born as the second son of the quick-
tempered vicar of a small Wiltshire parish church
of Westport and Charlton (Wiltshire) England
reportedly premature because of the stress
created by the news of the approaching Spanish
Armada. Hobbes later considered it a sign that he
was born under: the burden of fear and the
consequent passion for peace.

Disgraced after engaging in a fight at his own

church door, he disappeared and abandoned his
three children to the care of his brother, a well-to-
do glover in Malmesbury. When he was four years
old, Hobbes was sent to school at Westport, then
to a private school, and finally, at 15, to Magdalen
Hall in the University of Oxford, where he took a
traditional arts degree and in his spare time
developed an interest in maps and charts.He
received his college education at Oxford University
in England, where he studied classics. Upon his
graduation at age 19 he became connected to the
Cavendish family, serving as private tutor to
William Cavendish (later 2nd Earl of Devonshire). A
tour with William to the European continent
opened up his philosophical horizons and he began
to study the classics in earnest thereafter. He
began to develop a growing interest in the
movement of historyin the outcome of nations
and empires. In 1629 he published a translation of
Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian War
motivated in part by his desire to send a warning
to England about the dangers of democracy gone
amiss, as happened in ancient Athens.
Over the next seven years he expanded his own
knowledge of philosophy, awakening in him
curiosity over key philosophic debates. and in 1636
He visited Florence and later was a regular
debater in philosophic groups in Paris.
After returning to England he wrote Elements of
law Natural and Politic, which outlined his new
theory. The first thirteen chapters of this work was
published in 1650 under the title Human Nature,
and the rest of the work as a separate volume
entitled De Corpore Politico.
During his time outside of England, Hobbes
became interested in why people allowed
themselves to be ruled and what would be the best
form of government for England. Then In 1651,
Hobbes wrote his most famous work,
entitled Leviathan. In it, he argued that people
were naturally wicked and could not be trusted to
govern. Therefore, Hobbes believed that an
absolute monarchy - a government that gave all
power to a king or queen - was best. Hobbes
believed that humans were basically selfish
creatures who would do anything to better their
position. Left to themselves, he thought, people
would act on their evil impulses. According to
Hobbes, people therefore should not be trusted to
make decisions on their own. In addition, Hobbes
felt that nations, like people, were selfishly
motivated.
To Hobbes, each country was in a constant battle
for power and wealth. He then quoted, "If men are
naturally in a state of war, why do they always
carry arms and why do they have keys to lock their
doors?"
We're not at war everyday yet people carry around
weapons like guns and knives. We lock people out
of our homes and cars or places of buisness. Means
that we dont trust people.
Governments were created, according to Hobbes,
to protect people from their own selfishness and
evil. The best government was one that had the
great power of a leviathan, or sea monster. Hobbes
believed in the rule of a king because he felt a
country needed an authority figure to provide
direction and leadership. Because the people were
only interested in promoting their own self-
interests, Hobbes believed democracy - allowing
citizens to vote for government leaders - would
never work. Hobbes wrote, "All mankind [is in] a
perpetual and restless desire for power... that
[stops] only in death." Consequently, giving power
to the individual would create a dangerous
situation that would start a "war of every man
against every man" and make life "solitary, poor,
nasty, brutish, and short."
Despite his distrust of democracy, Hobbes
believed that a diverse group of representatives
presenting the problems of the common person
would, hopefully, prevent a king from being cruel
and unfair. During Hobbes' lifetime, business
began to have a big influence on government.
Those who could contribute money to the
government were given great status, and business
interests were very powerful. In order to offset the
growing power of business, Hobbes believed that
an individual could be heard in government by
authorizing a representative to speak on their
behalf. In fact, Hobbes came up with the phrase
"voice of the people," which meant that one person
could be chosen to represent a group with similar
views. However, this "voice" was merely heard and
not necessarily listened to - final decisions lay with
the king.
He cites three natural reasons that humans fight:
competition over material good, general distrust,
and the glory of powerful positions. Hobbes comes
to the conclusion that humanity's natural condition
is a state of perpetual war, constant fear, and lack
of morality.
In 1655 Hobbes published De Corpore, the first
part of his philosophical system. By the time
of Leviathan and De Corpore, Hobbes was
convinced that human beings (including their
minds) were entirely material. He argued that only
material things are real. Later on, he came to think
that even God was a sort of material being.
Hobbes' story about the workings of mind and
language (e.g., in the early chapters of Leviathan)
is supposed to be an implicit argument for
materialism. But In 1667, Leviathan was mentioned
in a bill passed in the Commons against
blasphemous literature and was forbidden to
publish on the topic of religion. Many of his works
were kept from publication, however a Latin
translation of Leviathan was published in
Amsterdam in 1668.
Hobbes suffered a bladder disorder, which was
followed by a paralytic stroke from which he died
on 4 December 1679 at age 90.