Hobbes was born in England in 1558, was considered a man of great intellectual kind, curious and shy. His fate would have lived in a time not conducive to a lover of peace and tranquility. obbes in his youth, took horror to political and religious discussions on the interpretation of the Bible and the rights of individual conscience. In his view these discussions weakened England, undermining the authority at its base and prepared the civil war. According to Hobbes, nature has made men so equal in the faculties of body and mind that if a man is stronger or more intelligent body of understanding that another, when considered together, the difference between men is not so important. So that they can claim based on her and for themselves, any benefit to which another may not aspire.
The general inclination of all mankind is thus a perpetual and relentless desire for power that ceases only with death. The struggle for riches, pleasures, honors or other forms of power, inclined to fight, enmity and war. Therefore, in human nature are three main causes of discord, competition, distrust, and glory. In this way the competition is driving men to attack to make a profit, distrust to achieve security and glory to win reputation. With all this, while men live without a common power to frighten all are in the condition or state which is called war. A war which is that of all against all.
But Hobbes says there never was a time when particular men were in a state of war against each other, but at different times of the human being is in a state of constant enmity, on the status and position of gladiators, guns and his eyes struck against one another. Thus in this war nothing can be unjust. The concepts of law and lawlessness, justice and injustice have no place. Where there is no common power, there is no law.Where no law, no justice. In this condition the man is at the hands of simple nature, a war of all against all, may be able to overcome that state, partly by his passions and his reason.
The passions that incline men to peace are fear of death, the desire for things that are necessary for a comfortable life, and hope to get them through work. In other words, the passion inclines men to want and get the goods and privileges of others. This would then man's need, because their nature is to be at war with each other.
Meanwhile on the other hand, the reason to believe that without security, and life, property and privileges desired no sense because you can not enjoy. The reason then suggests appropriate standards of peace, which can reach men by mutual consensus. These rules are what Hobbes called laws of nature, which will assist the man to come out of this state of war.
Hobbes defines 19 natural laws but there are two fundamental of which is derived from the rest. The first concerns every man should strive for peace, while he hopes to achieve, and when you can not get it, you must find and use all helps and advantages of war. Ie to seek peace and pursue it defended by all possible means. The second law says that men should have access (if others agree as well and as deemed necessary for peace and defense of himself) to give this right to all things and met with the same freedom, facing each other with respect himself. It's like the law of the gospel: "Do not do unto others what you do not wish that to you." The second law of nature according to which men are obliged to transfer to others the rights that disturb the peace, it follows a third law that relates to men meet the covenants made. So while the passions of men face, the reason makes compromise.
But when the agreements are respected and justice is carried out, which means that there is a constant will of giving to each his own. All men are entitled to everything and therefore are equal before the law. This inclination to agree leads individuals to agree to a contract that involves the renunciation of all their holdings in the state of nature to be granted to a sovereign who in turn will ensure order and security. With the contract is renounced liberty and any rights that might endanger peace.
The human being requires something more than agree, to make their agreement constant and binding, and that something is a common power to keep them at bay and direct their actions towards the collective benefit. The covenants do not rely on the sword are but words, no strength to secure man somehow. Therefore, despite the laws of nature, if not already established a power, each trust in their own strength to protect against other men.
The only way to erect such a common power, able to defend against the invasion of foreigners and the injuries of others, assuring them that their own activity and the fruits of the earth to nourish themselves and live contentedly, is to give all his and strength to a man or an assembly of men.
This is more than consent or concord, is a real unity of all in a person, established by covenant of every man with others, in a manner as if every one would say to all, authorize and transferred to this man or assembly men my right of governing myself, provided that you ae transferiréis your right, and autorizaréis all acts the same way. This done, the crowd united in one person is called the state and the owner of this person is called sovereign.
This is the generation of the Leviathan, or rather of that mortal god, which must, under the immortal god, our peace and defense. And establish the State is only possible civil society .. That is, the organization of all subjects within the power of the state, becomes the polar opposite of war. The idea of the powerful state on earth, that mortal god to frighten every citizen is the Leviathan, the Biblical monster becomes a great solution that man created for conservation. Under the sovereignty of state guarantees peace, because no society without state among men, but merely a natural state of mutual distrust and terror.
Thus the sign of absolute sovereignty is the power to give and breaking the law. The sovereign is the real fixer of justice and morality, as right and good, become defined as coincident with the will of the sovereign. The sovereign is the only state legislature and the only source of law. Even in matters spiritual or religious in nature is the sovereign who has the ultimate authority. The difference in governments is the difference of the sovereign or the person representative of each and every one of the crowd. The representative must be in need or one or more persons. When the representative is a man, then the government is a monarchy, when it is a meeting of all who want to go there we a democracy or popular government, when the assembly is one part only, then that called aristocracy.
Leviathan:
In Leviathan, Hobbes set out his doctrine of the foundation of states and legitimate governments – originating social contract theory. Leviathan was written during the English Civil War; much of the book is occupied with demonstrating the necessity of a strong central authority to avoid the evil of discord and civil war.
Beginning from a mechanistic understanding of human beings and the passions, Hobbes postulates what life would be like without government, a condition which he calls the state of nature. In that state, each person would have a right, or license, to everything in the world. This, Hobbes argues, would lead to a "war of all against all" (bellum omnium contra omnes). The description contains what has been called one of the best known passages in English philosophy, which describes the natural state mankind would be in, were it not for political community:
In such condition, there is no place for industry; because the fruit thereof is uncertain: and consequently no culture of the earth; no navigation, nor use of the commodities that may be imported by sea; no commodious building; no instruments of moving, and removing, such things as require much force; no knowledge of the face of the earth; no account of time; no arts; no letters; no society; and which is worst of all, continual fear, and danger of violent death; and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.
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Baruch de Spinoza:
In 1660 he moved to Leyden and three years later settled in the vicinity of The Hague, maintaining relationships with members of the Royal Society of London and the rationalist philosopher and mathematician Leibniz. However, despite the enormous influence of his writings, Spinoza renounced academic honors not to undermine their intellectual freedom, refusing the chair of philosophy at Heidelberg that was offered in 1673. In 1677 died of consumption.
His departure from public life is reflected in the few works published during his lifetime.Only two, one with his name published in 1663, The principles of philosophy of Rene Descartes and other published anonymously in 1670 under the title Theological-Political Treaty. The rest of his intellectual production appeared posthumously: the Treaty on reform of understanding (written in Leyden), Ethics in the order shown geometric undoubtedly his work more relevant and Short Treatise on God, man and happiness, discovered in midnineteenth century.
Spinoza's philosophical thought:
Formed primarily in the Cartesian philosophy, Baruch Spinoza's rationalism is influenced by Jewish culture (Maimonides, Chasdai Crescas) of Stoicism (Seneca, Cicero) and others such as Giordano Bruno and Hobbes.
The fundamental problem with his thinking revolves around the question of unity and multiplicity: the problem of identity and difference and its causal explanation. The generous beings heterogeneity we observe in the universe has to be explained, as postulated many centuries before Aristotle, for their causes. Now, how can we access this uniqueness? How can we truly demonstrate what the real causes of everything and multiple?
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Baruch de Spinoza:
Baruch Spinoza was born on November 24, 1632 in Amsterdam, the son of a family of Portuguese Jews emigrated to Holland in the late sixteenth century. His ancestors were Marranos perhaps (outwardly accepted Christianity not to be expelled, but remained faithful to Judaism) and Spinoza was educated in the principles of their religion. However, because it did not accept the orthodox Judaism, a fact evident in his writings, fueexcomulgado and expelled from the Jewish community of Amsterdam in 1656, devoted himself to the job of polishing lenses for optical instruments.
In 1660 he moved to Leyden and three years later settled in the vicinity of The Hague, maintaining relationships with members of the Royal Society of London and the rationalist philosopher and mathematician Leibniz. However, despite the enormous influence of his writings, Spinoza renounced academic honors not to undermine their intellectual freedom, refusing the chair of philosophy at Heidelberg that was offered in 1673. In 1677 died of consumption.
His departure from public life is reflected in the few works published during his lifetime.Only two, one with his name published in 1663, The principles of philosophy of Rene Descartes and other published anonymously in 1670 under the title Theological-Political Treaty. The rest of his intellectual production appeared posthumously: the Treaty on reform of understanding (written in Leyden), Ethics in the order shown geometric undoubtedly his work more relevant and Short Treatise on God, man and happiness, discovered in midnineteenth century.
Spinoza's philosophical thought:
Formed primarily in the Cartesian philosophy, Baruch Spinoza's rationalism is influenced by Jewish culture (Maimonides, Chasdai Crescas) of Stoicism (Seneca, Cicero) and others such as Giordano Bruno and Hobbes.
The fundamental problem with his thinking revolves around the question of unity and multiplicity: the problem of identity and difference and its causal explanation. The generous beings heterogeneity we observe in the universe has to be explained, as postulated many centuries before Aristotle, for their causes. Now, how can we access this uniqueness? How can we truly demonstrate what the real causes of everything and multiple?
It seems clear that understanding the determinants and guiding principles of the world can not be acquired through experience (that nothing can tell us about the necessary connections between facts), but for the pure procedure of the mind, according to its own laws. Herein lies the philosophical work by Spinoza "more geometric" according to the geometrically.
Revealing considerable scientific aptitude, the breadth and importance of Spinoza's work was not fully realized until years after his death. Today, he is considered one of the great rationalists of the 17th-century philosophy, laying the groundwork for the 18th century Enlightenment and modern biblical criticism. By virtue of his magnum opus, the posthumous Ethics, in which he opposed Descartes' mind–body dualism, Spinoza is considered to be one of Western philosophy's most important philosophers. Philosopher and historian Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel said of all contemporary philosophers, "You are either a Spinozist or not a philosopher at all."
Spinoza was raised in the Dutch Jewish community. In time he developed highly controversial ideas regarding the authenticity of the Hebrew Bible and the nature of the Divine. The Jewish religious authorities issued a cherem (Hebrew: חרם, a kind of excommunication) against him, effectively dismissing him from Jewish society at age 23. His books were also later put on the Catholic Index of banned books.
Spinoza lived quietly as a lens grinder, turning down rewards and honors throughout his life, including prestigious teaching positions, and gave his family inheritance to his sister. Spinoza's philosophical accomplishments and moral character prompted 20th century philosopher Gilles Deleuze to name him "the 'prince' of philosophers." Spinoza died at the age of 44 allegedly of a lung illness, perhaps tuberculosis or silicosis exacerbated by fine glass dust inhaled while plying his trade. Spinoza is buried in the churchyard of the Christian Nieuwe Kerk in The Hague.
