The Antifeudal Social Philosophy of Hobbes

Abstract

The first thinker for whom the basic principle of the independence of the essential qualities of an element from its system could be demonstrated was Thomas Hobbes. In order to interpret his position on the background of the political and theoretical controversies of his time, we must first take into consideration the dominant conceptions against which he took the field. Among the better known scholastics of his time, Hobbes himself mentions the Jesuits, Francis Suarez and Cardinal Bellarmine; he dealt extensively with the latter in the Leviathan.