. 1588–1679, Born at Malmesbury he lived in England and France. He is now best known for his political philosophy, defending an absolute sovereignty as the only way to ensure social security and prevent life from being ‘solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short’, as it would be in the ‘state of nature’. This sovereignty he based on a social contract among men, but the sovereign had duties only to God. As usually interpreted, he based the duty of political obedience on self-interest. (Cf. also ROUSSEAU.) He also developed a nominalist view of UNIVERSALS, and a philosophy of nature which analysed everything, including man, in terms of matter and motion. He was also much influenced by his study of geometry.
At one point he engaged in controversy with Descartes. De Cive. 1642 (political). Leviathan, 1651 (main political work, including also treatment of man). De Corpore, 1655, transl. 1656 as Elements of Philosophy, The First Section, Concerning Body (metaphysics and treatment of inanimate nature). See also COLLINGWOOD, MODALITIES.
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