Thomas Hobbes, página 2 de 6

Thomas Hobbess political manifesto "Leviathan" (or, as it was originally titled: Leviathan or The Matter, Forme and Power of a Common-Wealth Ecclesiastical and Civil", 1651) holds that a commonwealth with a social contract is the ideal way to govern a body of people.Hobbes argues that a sovereign power is best equipped to maintain peace and civic unity and that each of the nations citizens buys into a social contract that allows the sovereign power to act on behalf of safety and public defence. The central image of the philosophy is a leviathan or sea monster, with a body made of human constituents and a head representing the sovereign leader. According to Hobbes, this philosophy is the best in order to avoid civil war and maintain a unified nation. The manifesto is broken up into four sections, which build on this central idea.

Obra capital del pensamiento político occidental, el Leviatán o la materia, forma y poder de un estado eclesiástico y civil contiene la teoría del Estado de Thomas Hobbes, concebido metafóricamente como la gran bestia biblica, maquina poderosa y monstruo devorador de los individuos. El Estado hobbesiano lo decide todo: es un sistema que representa la concepcion autoritaria y absolutista, basada tanto en el principio de la igualdad como en un pesimismo total ante la naturaleza humana. La concepcion politica de Hobbes, inicialmente de inspiracion promonarquica, esta dominada por el mecanicismo naturalista y la afi rmacion del poder omnimodo del Estado, originalmente concebido como un correctivo a la disolucion politica motivada por las pasiones antisociales del hombre.

Ed., Joaquín Rodríguez Feo Thomas Hobbes (5 de abril de 1588 # 4 de diciembre de 1679), fue un filósofo inglés, cuya obra Leviatán (1651) estableció la fundación de la mayor parte de la filosofía politica occidental. Es el teorico por excelencia del absolutismo politico. Hobbes es recordado por su obra sobre la filosofia politica, aunque tambien contribuyo en una amplia gama de campos, incluyendo historia, geometria, teologia, etica, filosofia general y ciencia politica.

Nature (the art whereby God hath made and governes the world) is by the art of man, as in many other things, so in this also imitated, that it can make an Artificial Animal. For seeing life is but a motion of Limbs, the begining whereof is in some principall part within; why may we not say, that all Automata (Engines that move themselves by springs and wheeles as doth a watch) have an artificiall life? For what is the Heart, but a Spring; and the Nerves, but so many Strings; and the Joynts, but so many Wheeles, giving motion to the whole Body, such as was intended by the Artificer? Art goes yet further, imitating that Rationall and most excellent worke of Nature, Man. For by Art is created that great LEVIATHAN called a COMMON-WEALTH, or STATE, (in latine CIVITAS) which is but an Artificiall Man; though of greater stature and strength than the Naturall, for whose protection and defence it was intended; and in which, the Soveraignty is an Artificiall Soul, as giving life and motion to the whole body; The Magistrates, and other Officers of Judicature and Execution, artificiall Joynts; Reward and Punishment (by which fastned to the seat of the Soveraignty, every joynt and member is moved to performe his duty) are the Nerves, that do the same in the Body Naturall; The Wealth and Riches of all the particular members, are the Strength; Salus Populi (the Peoples Safety) its Businesse; Counsellors, by whom all things needfull for it to know, are suggested unto it, are the Memory; Equity and Lawes, an artificiall Reason and Will; Concord, Health; Sedition, Sicknesse; and Civill War, Death. Lastly, the Pacts and Covenants, by which the parts of this Body Politique were at first made, set together, and united, resemble that Fiat, or the Let Us Make Man, pronounced by God in the Creation.To describe the Nature of this Artificiall man, I will considerFirst the Matter thereof, and the Artificer; both which is Man.

Diálogo entre un filósofo y un estudioso de Derecho común en Inglaterra , compuesto alrededor de 1666, es un examen crítico de algunas de las doctrinas sobre el papel del common law en el sistema juridico ingles defendidas por sir Edward Coke. En su discusion con el juez Coke, Hobbes reelabora algunos de los temas de teoria juridica y filosofia politica que habia examinado en el Leviatan; aborda cuestiones conceptuales en torno a las nociones de ley, justicia y equidad; pasa revista a algunas piezas importantes del sistema juridico ingles, y realiza incursiones en su historia. Pero el Dialogo gravita en realidad alrededor del tema de la soberania y su significacion para el sistema juridico.El volumen se completa con dos escritos de gran interes como documentos autobiograficos: la Autobiografia, escrita por el autor en versos latinos en 1672, y las Consideraciones sobre la lealtad, religion y maneras de Thomas Hobbes, publicadas en 1662 en respuesta a las acusaciones de ateismo y deslealtad vertidas por el matematico John Wallis.

Thomas Hobbes took a new look at the ways in which society should function, and he ended up formulating the concept of political science. His crowning achievement, "Leviathan", remains among the greatest works in the history of ideas. Written during a moment in English history when the political and social structures as well as methods of science were in flux and open to interpretation, "Leviathan" played an essential role in the development of the modern world.An outspoken royalist, Hobbes fled to France during the English civil war, where he wrote this polemic, in which he calls for a powerful sovereigna "Leviathan"to act as an enforcer of peace and justice. Hobbes articulation of this long-contemplated philosophy of political and natural science was finally published in 1651, two years after the overthrow and execution of Charles I. It met with a fire-storm of controversy that included charges of treason and sedition.

Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes Leviathan or The Matter, Forme and Power of a Commonwealth Ecclesiasticall and Civil, commonly referred to as Leviathan, is a book written by Thomas Hobbes (15881679) and published in 1651 (revised Latin edition 1668). Its name derives from the biblical Leviathan. The work concerns the structure of society and legitimate government, and is regarded as one of the earliest and most influential examples of social contract theory.Written during the English Civil War (16421651), it argues for a social contract and rule by an absolute sovereign. Hobbes wrote that civil war and the brute situation of a state of nature ("the war of all against all") could be avoided only by strong, undivided government.Hobbes proceeds by defining terms clearly and unsentimentally. Good and evil are nothing more than terms used to denote an individuals appetites and desires, while these appetites and desires are nothing more than the tendency to move toward or away from an object. Hope is nothing more than an appetite for a thing combined with an opinion that it can be had.He suggests that the dominant political theology of the time, Scholasticism, thrives on confused definitions of everyday words, such as incorporeal substance, which for Hobbes is a contradiction in terms.Hobbes describes human psychology without any reference to the summum bonum, or greatest good, as previous thought had done. According to Hobbes, not only is the concept of a summum bonum superfluous, but given the variability of human desires, there could be no such thing.Consequently, any political community that sought to provide the greatest good to its members would find itself driven by competing conceptions of that good with no way to decide among them. The result would be civil war.

Este clasico de la ciencia politica hace una penetrante critica de la Iglesia y politica: para acabar con el reino de las tinieblas y de la supersticion, el nuevo Estado ingles deberia excluir con firmeza todos los defectos organicos del antiguo, y ser netamente racionalista y laico, un verdadero reino de la luz y de la ciencia.

Thomas Hobbes fue uno de los más célebres pensadores políticos de todos los tiempos. En estas páginas, seleccionadas de su magna obra, Leviatán, el lector puede confirmar la vigencia de un texto clásico de filosofia politica que describe los origenes del Estado, los derechos de los soberanos y las instituciones, los diversos tipos de gobierno, los dominios paternalistas y el poder despotico, la libertad de los individuos y las funciones de los ministros dentro del gobierno.

Written during the turmoil of the English Civil War, Leviathan is an ambitious and highly original work of political philosophy. Claiming that man's essential nature is competitive and selfish, Hobbes formulates the case for a powerful sovereign - or 'Leviathan' - to enforce peace and the law, substituting security for the anarchic freedom he believed human beings would otherwise experience. This worldview shocked many of Hobbes's contemporaries, and his work was publicly burnt for sedition and blasphemy when it was first published. But in his rejection of Aristotle's view of man as a naturally social being, and in his painstaking analysis of the ways in which society can and should function, Hobbes opened up a whole new world of political science.

Thomas Hobbes fue uno de los más célebres pensadores políticos de todos los tiempos. En estas páginas, seleccionadas de su magna obra, Leviatán, el lector puede confirmar la vigencia de un texto clásico de filosofia politica que describe los origenes del Estado, los derechos de los soberanos y las instituciones, los diversos tipos de gobierno, los dominios paternalistas y el poder despotico, la libertad de los individuos y las funciones de los ministros dentro del gobierno.

El Tratado sobre el ciudadano (De Cive) debería haber sido el tercer libro de una trilogía sistemática en la que Hobbes, según su proyecto inicial, abordaría la física, la antropología y la filosofía politica: De corpore (Tratado sobre el cuerpo), De homine (Tratado sobre el hombre) ambas de proxima publicacion en esta Editorial, De cive. Sin embargo, no fue asi porque la Guerra Civil forzo a Hobbes a publicar sus ideas politicas en primer lugar. Esta obra constituye una referencia inexcusable no solo para comprender el pensamiento politico del siglo XVII, que trataba de liberarse de una concepcion medieval del mundo, sino para conocer los precedentes de las ideas que hoy mismo configuran las distintas ofertas politicas de nuestro siglo.

Thomas Hobbes es más conocido por sus obras políticas �«Tratado sobre el ciudadano» (publicado en esta Editorial), «Leviatán»� que por su producción científica. Sin embargo, este aspecto de su obra e

Léviathan de Hobbes (qui paraît en 1651) est un des rares textes fondateurs de la philosophie, comme la République de Platon, auquel son auteur le comparait. Il jette, en effet, les bases de la tradition politique moderne, en inventant le mythe de la souveraineté : considérant leur état naturel, effrayés par l'exacerbation mortelle de leurs passions, les hommes décidèrent, par leur faculté propre de vouloir et de penser, de se doter d'une loi commune, artificielle, qu'un individu ou une assemblée aura pour tâche d'élaborer et de mettre en œuvre. Avec Hobbes, l'histoire se substitue à la théologie : ce n'est plus dans le divin que la loi se fonde, mais dans l'humanité.