Thomas Hobbes Research Paper

Known mostly for his political philosophy, Thomas Hobbes was born in April of 1588, in England. After graduating from Oxford College in 1608, Hobbes began working for the royal Cavendish family as a tutor for William Cavendish. “Gaining access to books, and connections to philosophers and scientists”, Hobbes’s work with the Cavendish family proved to be influential in his intellectual development (Thomas Hobbes). In 1640, a time of civil unrest in England, Hobbes published Elements of Law, an introduction to his political philosophy. Due to his belief in absolute sovereignty and his connection with the Cavendish family, Hobbes left England for Paris in fear of punishment. In 1642, Hobbes published his first book on political philosophy, De

After graduating from Jesuit College of La Flèche around 1614, and studying law at Poitiers, Descartes became a soldier in 1618 and moved to Breda. During his time in Breda, Descartes met Isaac Beeckman, a mathematician and natural philosopher, who influenced Descartes to discover analytic geometry, a “technique for describing lines…by using mathematical equations involving ratios between lengths.” (“René Descartes”, CHECK DOTS) While living in Paris, Descartes was in communication with many mathematicians and natural philosophers who influenced his work in mathematics, during which he discovered the sine law of refraction, leading to his mathematical formulation of the shapes of lenses. During this time, he wrote Rules, a work that generalized the methods of mathematics, which he later abandoned. After a brief period of travel, Descartes focused on metaphysics, writing The World, which included treatises on the topics of nature, physiology, and the soul. These writings later led to Discourse, which included some of his metaphysical views in the attached essays: Meteorology and Dioptrics. One of Descartes most popular writings is the Meditations, in which he attempts to clarify his metaphysical

He wanted to understand how individuals worked in order to understand how they cooperate in groups, although he found it unnecessary to fully understand the individual before moving on to issues of the group. An empiricist, he believed that all knowledge is resultant of sensation. For Hobbes, the capability of imagining and imagination are linked to memory and understanding; Imagination is the idea or image itself, whereas memory is the decaying sense. Unlike Descartes’ belief in the immaterial mind, Hobbes believed “the mind contains sense, imagination, and the workings of language, with no further rational faculty.” (Thomas Hobbes) Hobbes believed that names for things were just “marks to aid the memory”, and “the only universal things.” (Thomas Hobbes) He was also a materialist, believing that humans were entirely material. Hobbes makes a cosmological argument for the existence of God in the Elements of Law, stating that when we try to describe God, we are only describing our inability to do so, or expressing our