Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679), though he wrote on a wide range of philosophical problems, was primarly a political theorist, one of the earliest as well as one of the greatest English witers on the problems of government. Hobees's ruthless depiction of the evils of "the state of nature2 was used by him as central to his argument in favour of absolute rule: but, though few readers have been prepared to follow his argument to that unpopular conclusion, the relentless realism of his approach to the problems of social organisation has exerted a continuing influence on later thinkers. His own thought ws inevitably conditioned by his personal experience of civil war and political disorder, but has proved powerful enough to trascend the limitations of its historical origins: it also gains much from the striking, often ironic, epigrammatic style which is so apt an expression of Hobbes's temperaments. Hobbes stimulates more than he persuades. The most disputatious of political philosophers, he continually invites us to argument. But his very manner, he puts us on our guard against him. But he also raises, sharply and vividly, issues of enduring interest, philosophical and practical.
Casalino Pierluigi, 3th, November, 2013.
Casalino Pierluigi, 3th, November, 2013.