Chapter Five
May you have a brilliant idea, which you know is right,
And be unable to convince others.
Romanian Curse
Thomas Hobbes was born in 1588, 372 (31 cycles of 12 years) before me; depending of his birth's month and day, the philosopher is probably a Rat in Chinese astrology (like me). (In my fourth manuscript, Transformation of the Rogue Messiah, I devote an entire chapter to my Chinese zodiac.)
In The Great Philosophers,by Jeremy Stangroom and James Garvey, it is noted from the start that it "is difficult to have anything but a great deal of admiration for someone who managed to annoy as diverse a group of people as did Thomas Hobbes (1588-1672). " Writes the author, Hobbes annoyed Parliementarians (for claiming that the King's right to rule is absolute, Monarchists (for suggesting "that the root of this power is not divine but granted by the people"), mathematicians ("by insisting in the face of overwhelming criticism that he had squared the circle"), Descartes ("by offering profound objections to his views shortly before the publication of the Meditations"), at least one bishop (who he "conducted a life-long public and sometimes acrimonious debate with "on the free-will topic"), the church ("by arguing, among other things, that the king is in charge of the interpretation of Scripture"), atheists ("by taking the sacrament when he mistakenly thought he was about to die"), and perhaps even God, Parliament considered (wondering "whether Hobbes' writings had provoked God's retribution" following the Great Fire and Great Plague).
Hobbes had his share of influential friends, however, and
he was concerned with more than just annoying people. He has been called, with some justice, the father of modern analytic philosophy, and he certainly ushered in modern political philosophy and social theory as we know it, breaking with traditional or mystical views of the origin of political power and turning instead to reason for its justification. (Pg. 36)
At the center of Hobbesian thinking was Geometry and Galilean views on
motion, and he argued that
great strides could be made... by adopting a method owed to the proofs of geometry, that is, beginning with small things and simple truths. Furhter, facts about human desire and sensation as well as large-scale human activities could be understood in terms of the motion of smaller parts. Laws not just of nature, but of human nature might be formulated. (Pg. 37)
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