2.2 Introduction to Thomas Hobbes

What this lecture covers

This lecture introduces Thomas Hobbes, a materialist philosopher who took the mechanical worldview of Galileo and Descartes to its logical extreme by denying that anything immaterial exists at all. It builds on the previous lectures' account of mechanism and Descartes's mind-matter dualism, showing how Hobbes rejected the 'immaterial substance' half of that dualism.

Millican covers Hobbes's materialism and determinism, his most famous work of political philosophy, Leviathan, his compatibilist account of free will, and the intense hostility his materialism provoked, including accusations of atheism and public book-burnings.

Key ideas

• Materialism: Hobbes held that the only substance in nature is physical matter; he denied immaterial substance, witchcraft, magic and reliance on religious revelation.
• Universal determinism: everything follows deterministic physical laws, with every event fixed by prior causes.
• Leviathan (1651): Hobbes's major political work, arguing that human nature left unchecked leads to a 'war of all against all' and a life that is 'solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short'.
• The social contract for peace: people should submit to an absolute sovereign to avoid civil war, a view shaped by Hobbes's experience of the English Civil War.
• Attack on Cartesian dualism: Hobbes called 'incorporeal substance' a contradiction in terms, rejecting Descartes's immaterial mind.
• Compatibilism: Hobbes defined freedom as the absence of external impediments to doing what one wills, making free will compatible with full physical determinism.
• Accusations of atheism: materialism was seen as incompatible with immortality and the afterlife, leading Parliament and Oxford to treat Hobbes's ideas as dangerous, even blaming them for the plague and the Great Fire of London.

Walkthrough

Hobbes the materialist (0:11)

Hobbes is introduced as a notorious figure, nicknamed 'the Monster of Malmesbury', who extended mechanism into full materialism: nothing exists but physical stuff, governed by deterministic laws, with no room for immaterial substance, witchcraft or revelation.

Leviathan and political theory (1:35)

The lecture covers Hobbes's political masterwork Leviathan, his bleak account of the state of nature, and his argument that only an absolute sovereign can prevent society from collapsing into civil war, a concern shaped directly by his own times.

Hobbes is a materialist (4:00)

Hobbes's rejection of Descartes's immaterial mind is examined, including his claim that 'incorporeal body' is a contradiction in terms, a pointed jab at Cartesian dualism.

Hobbes is a compatibilist (5:35)

Hobbes's definition of freedom as the absence of external hindrance to acting on one's will is explained, along with why this makes him the first classic compatibilist about free will and determinism.

Hobbes is an atheist (7:01)

The lecture covers why materialism was seen as incompatible with immortality and traditional religion, and the public hostility this produced, including Parliament blaming Hobbes's ideas for the plague and Great Fire, and Oxford's public burning of his books.

Daniel Scargill and the case against materialism (8:19)

The story of Daniel Scargill, expelled from Cambridge for being a 'Hobbist' and forced into a public recantation, illustrates how being associated with Hobbes was treated as morally dangerous.

How was he refuted? (9:36)

The lecture closes with the main argument used against Hobbes's materialism: since matter, under the new physics, is passive and moved only by inertia, thought and mental activity cannot come from matter alone, so something immaterial must be responsible for the mind.

Before you watch

• Watch lectures 1.4 and 2.1, which introduce Descartes's mechanism and mind-matter dualism that Hobbes reacts against.

Check your understanding

1. In what ways did Hobbes push mechanism further than Descartes did?
2. How does Hobbes define freedom, and why does this make him a compatibilist rather than a libertarian about free will?
3. Why was materialism seen as dangerous to religion and morality in Hobbes's time?
4. What argument did Hobbes's opponents use against materialism, and how does it rely on the physics of inertia?