Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- A note on the translation
- List of abbreviations
- Introduction: a defence of justice and freedom
- Chronology
- Bibliography
- From Bayle's Dictionnaire historique et critique
- Project for a Critical Dictionary
- From Bayle's Dictionnaire historique et critique Bodin
- Brutus
- David
- Elizabeth
- Gregory
- Hobbes
- De l'Hôpital
- Hotman
- Japan
- Juno
- Loyola
- Machiavelli
- Mâcon
- Mariana
- Navarre
- Nicole
- Ovid
- Sainctes
- Sainte-Aldegonde
- Socinus (Marianus)
- Socinus (Faustus)
- Synergists
- Xenophanes
- Clarifications: On Atheists and On Obscenities
- Index
- Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought
Hobbes
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- A note on the translation
- List of abbreviations
- Introduction: a defence of justice and freedom
- Chronology
- Bibliography
- From Bayle's Dictionnaire historique et critique
- Project for a Critical Dictionary
- From Bayle's Dictionnaire historique et critique Bodin
- Brutus
- David
- Elizabeth
- Gregory
- Hobbes
- De l'Hôpital
- Hotman
- Japan
- Juno
- Loyola
- Machiavelli
- Mâcon
- Mariana
- Navarre
- Nicole
- Ovid
- Sainctes
- Sainte-Aldegonde
- Socinus (Marianus)
- Socinus (Faustus)
- Synergists
- Xenophanes
- Clarifications: On Atheists and On Obscenities
- Index
- Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought
Summary
[Hobbes, Bayle observes, had constructed an elegant theory of a society that was apparently secure against troubles. His mistake was to suppose that because order was an initial condition of justice it was a sufficient condition. For Hobbes's fear of sectarian diversity had led him to defend the very arguments advanced in Gallican France for revoking the toleration accorded to Huguenots. Bayle finds less to contest in Hobbes's treatment of monarchy and democracy in the ancient world. Polemicists who disputed the merits of these rival institutions would always be able to make a case for condemning their opponents' favoured system. In Remark (M), Bayle defends Hobbes against malicious pens which had alleged that the philosopher's materialist physics were incompatible with the piety of an ethical Christian.]
Hobbes (Thomas), one of the greatest minds of the sixteenth century, was born at Malmesbury in England in 1588 [(A)]. He had made great progress in languages [(B)] when at fourteen years of age he was sent to Oxford where for five years he studied Aristotle's philosophy. Afterwards he joined William Cavendish, who a little after was made earl of Devonshire, to become tutor to his eldest son. He travelled in France and in Italy with his pupil; and, becoming aware that he remembered little of his Greek or his Latin, and that the philosophy of Aristotle, in which he had made such great progress, was despised by the wisest heads, he devoted himself entirely to literature as soon as he returned to his country.
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- Bayle: Political Writings , pp. 79 - 92Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2000
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