During the middle seventeenth century and the entire eighteenth century, the West first saw the growth of political liberalism. This is a time referred to as the Enlightenment because it brought many new ideas and concepts to light. However, the Enlightenment does not have a true location, rather it was a global convergence of thoughts. These thoughts had different manifestations in different countries. In all countries, the Enlightenment marked a shift towards rationalism also known as the “Age of Reason.” The biggest events of the Enlightenment that specifically urged political liberalism were the French and American revolutions that created new political orders and changed the understanding of politics in the West. The revolutions themselves
…show more content…
Hobbes wished to turn politics into a mathematically manageable and predictable science. He presents his ideas in the Leviathan, or “giant sea creature,” that he used as a metaphor to symbolize the monstrous dangers of war, government, and rulers. His work emerged in the tumultuous year 1651, immediately following the English Civil War. For Hobbes, timing is heavily influential because it is believed that the very events of the English Civil War, concluding in 1642 with the execution of King Charles I were motivations for Hobbes’ writing. Inevitably, he used the events of the war to support his claims that a competitive and selfish desire for power motivates all people. In his work, Hobbes abandons the divine right of kings and seeks to think about politics without theological framing. In his mission to systematically explain how politics works, Hobbes begins where no previous authors had before. He opens the Leviathan with a careful examination of the human eyeball that later develops his view of perception and his claim that what people believe to be true determines how they act. This approach allows him to present his ideas in a unique lens which he uses to examine human nature in order to further understand politics. He argues that human nature is equal for all people, but that this equality comes with a cost. For when all men are equal, so also are each man’s desires and when “two men desire the same thing, which nevertheless they cannot both enjoy, they become enemies” (130). Ironically, in Hobbes’ mind, common desires and equality of human nature, cause men to live in a constant state of war with each other. In this state of nature, men are never truly stable and are constantly quarrelling over three main matters— “first, competition; secondly, diffidence; thirdly, glory” (131). Constant quarrel marks this state of man and stability is
Hobbes wished to turn politics into a mathematically manageable and predictable science. He presents his ideas in the Leviathan, or “giant sea creature,” that he used as a metaphor to symbolize the monstrous dangers of war, government, and rulers. His work emerged in the tumultuous year 1651, immediately following the English Civil War. For Hobbes, timing is heavily influential because it is believed that the very events of the English Civil War, concluding in 1642 with the execution of King Charles I were motivations for Hobbes’ writing. Inevitably, he used the events of the war to support his claims that a competitive and selfish desire for power motivates all people. In his work, Hobbes abandons the divine right of kings and seeks to think about politics without theological framing. In his mission to systematically explain how politics works, Hobbes begins where no previous authors had before. He opens the Leviathan with a careful examination of the human eyeball that later develops his view of perception and his claim that what people believe to be true determines how they act. This approach allows him to present his ideas in a unique lens which he uses to examine human nature in order to further understand politics. He argues that human nature is equal for all people, but that this equality comes with a cost. For when all men are equal, so also are each man’s desires and when “two men desire the same thing, which nevertheless they cannot both enjoy, they become enemies” (130). Ironically, in Hobbes’ mind, common desires and equality of human nature, cause men to live in a constant state of war with each other. In this state of nature, men are never truly stable and are constantly quarrelling over three main matters— “first, competition; secondly, diffidence; thirdly, glory” (131). Constant quarrel marks this state of man and stability is