![]() ![]() ![]() He arrived just in time to witness the end of the Thirty Years’ War (in 1648). And fearing that he’d fall foul of Cromwell’s forces, Hobbes fled to France.īut even on the European continent, Hobbes didn’t escape political turmoil. In that conflict, Hobbes was sympathetic to the monarchy. Parliament wanted to subject the king to democratic accountability. In 1640, England was on the brink of civil war, with parliamentary forces (led by Oliver Cromwell) challenging the king, Charles I. Thomas Hobbes was an Englishman who gave us a political philosophy that was somehow deeply conservative and yet surprisingly radical at the same time.Īs someone who lived in England and France during the 1600s, Hobbes was witness to a period of tremendous political transformation. (Image: Morphart Creation/Shutterstock) Thomas Hobbes: Witness to Political Turmoil In the first edition of Leviathan, the front page featured an image of a giant man, towering over the landscape, with a crown and body made up of hundreds of little people-the subjects of the sovereign. An Enlightenment thinker, Hobbes set the stage for how we think about state power in the modern world. Thomas Hobbes, an important political philosopher, advocated for a powerful, centralized state authority-preferably a strong monarchy he yearned for order in a world of chaos. ![]() ![]() By Ethan Hollander, Wabash College States use their power to provide public goods, and to protect us-from others and from each other. ![]()
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