HOBBES, Thomas. Philosophical Rudiments concerning Government and Society. Or, a Dissertation Concerning Man in
his several habitudes and respects, as the Member of Society, first Secular, and then Sacred. 1651.
First edition "Thomas Hobbes' Leviathan... had a peculiar relevance for the American Revolutionaries... Hobbes had a
fundamentally pessimistic view of human nature... [which] had a powerful influence on the framers of the Constitution...
During the early years of the Revolutionary period, American leaders found Locke's revolutionary compact ideas more
useful than Hobbes' view of the unlimited authority of the state. But as the political and social experience of the 1780s
seemed to bear out Hobbes's pessimistic view that men are essentially self-interested, the Hobbesian outlook became
more relevant. Hobbes's conclusion that an individual should, unless his life is threatened, submit to the State, because
any government is better than anarchy, "produced a fermentation in English thought not surpassed until the advent of
Darwinism". Leviathan was among the 'Pernicious Books and Damnable doctrines' proscribed by the University of Oxford
and ordered to be Burnt. It was also placed on the Index in 1703. Later philosophical emphasis on the rights of the
individual led to a decline in Hobbes' influence, but the growth of utilitarianism led to his reassessment as "the most
original political philosopher of his time".
his several habitudes and respects, as the Member of Society, first Secular, and then Sacred. 1651.
First edition "Thomas Hobbes' Leviathan... had a peculiar relevance for the American Revolutionaries... Hobbes had a
fundamentally pessimistic view of human nature... [which] had a powerful influence on the framers of the Constitution...
During the early years of the Revolutionary period, American leaders found Locke's revolutionary compact ideas more
useful than Hobbes' view of the unlimited authority of the state. But as the political and social experience of the 1780s
seemed to bear out Hobbes's pessimistic view that men are essentially self-interested, the Hobbesian outlook became
more relevant. Hobbes's conclusion that an individual should, unless his life is threatened, submit to the State, because
any government is better than anarchy, "produced a fermentation in English thought not surpassed until the advent of
Darwinism". Leviathan was among the 'Pernicious Books and Damnable doctrines' proscribed by the University of Oxford
and ordered to be Burnt. It was also placed on the Index in 1703. Later philosophical emphasis on the rights of the
individual led to a decline in Hobbes' influence, but the growth of utilitarianism led to his reassessment as "the most
original political philosopher of his time".
