Leviathan (Part 2) - Hobbes

(I wrote about the first part here.)


Hobbes wrote 'Leviathan' in the mid 1600's.  It's important to understand that England was in the midst of a long period of argument over how its government should operate.  The normal government in Europe at the time was that of a monarchy, but the English Civil War upset that.  Now there were questions about whether there should be a king and, if so, what kind of powers would that king have.  Hobbes tried to reason some of this out.  He defined a huge number of things, basically in an Aristotelian attempt to get his arms around the conceptual problems.  This means that his writing is somewhat dry for us moderns.  Much of what he talked about more than 300 years ago, is old hat for us now.  It's important, though, to recognize just what he was trying to do in an historical sense.
The second part of 'Leviathan' deals with attempts to define what a commonwealth is, what different types and what kind of powers it has.  He defines each and sets some idea of where the limits are.  Again, this makes sense to us now, but at the time it was fairly radical.
For instance, Hobbes talks about how each individual gives up some of their liberty in order to be part of the commonwealth.  The commonwealth, as a whole, must have some level of power and it can't stop to assure each individual as it exercises that power.  The easiest illustration of this is with police forces.  Individuals can't seek justice by punishing wrong-doers.  They give that power over to an objective police force.
There is much to disagree with him in specifics, but that really isn't the point of reading something like this.  The importance is in the exercise.  We take our current set up for granted, without thinking of the underlying philosophy involved.  Hobbes didn't, and he inspired others (like the Founding Fathers of the US) to work through the hard stuff.
Worth reading for style, if not for detail.

Upcoming

As the month of May draws to a close, I have now read through 18 pieces from the Great Books 10 year reading plan.  This is the regular number of works for each year in the plan.  As you might remember, I took their reading list apart and decided to use it in a more ala carte manner.  I took out nearly half of the remaining selections for years 5 - 10, paring the whole thing down to 59 remaining pieces. 
At the time, I thought it would take me about three years to get through it all, but I now think it will be two years or less.  As I mentioned, I've covered nearly a third of the works in five months.  When I first decided to tackle the list, I charted each piece by page number so that I could balance the months out.  Because of that, I can tell you that I've read 1299 pages so far this year, which would be a regular amount from a full year. 
This isn't because I'm awesome. It's because my schedule has allowed me to put in time each day towards reading goals.  I don't know if that will continue, but I've lightly planned out the rest of the year in hopes that it will.  If that schedule changes, then so be it.  I'll adjust.
The plan is to work on two separate tracks.  One of those tracks will work on finishing the group that I think of as the Enlightenment philosophers.  Those works:

• Hobbes - Leviathan (Part II)
• Milton - Samson Agonistes
• Pascal - The Provincial Letters
• Montesquieu - The Spirit of Laws (Books I-V, VIII, XI-XII)
• Rousseau - Discourse on Political Economy
• Locke - Letter Concerning Toleration
• Mill - Utilitarianism

There are also four pieces of Spinoza, basically Ethics (Parts 1-5), but I have a reason for holding those back.  If it turns out that these go faster than expected, I may cover Spinoza as well.
While working on these, I'm also going to work on some of the pieces of longer fiction.  The remaining ones:

• Cervantes - Don Quixote (2, broken in two pieces in the 10 year reading plan, though I'll read as one)
• Sterne - Tristam Shandy
• Fielding - Tom Jones
• Goethe - Faust (2)
• Tolstoy - War and Peace (2)
• Boswell - Life of Johnson (various parts, 2 pieces in the plan)

I very much doubt that I'll get through all of these this year.  I'm going to start with 'Don Quixote' and I've mentally tagged November and December for 'War and Peace'.  If I get through half of them and the seven Enlightenment pieces from above, then I'll be more than half way through the remaining works and in good shape to finish up next year. 


I'm also rounding out the work on Shakespeare.  I've currently read 28 of the 38 plays.  I aim to be done with the whole set by the end of July.  Maybe earlier.  I've done two a week for most of May.
I'm going to miss them when they're done, though I'll write about that in more depth when it happens. 
I've thought about trying to fit the 100 Best Plays project back in to fill that gap, but I'm not sure if I will or not.  There is some crossover between that project and the Great Books project so I've actively blogged more than a quarter of the full hundred.  Maybe I'll fill in more gaps later in the year.

It looks like a busy year of reading but I've greatly enjoyed what I've gotten out of the first five months of it.  I can only hope that the next seven are as good!

Leviathan (Book One) - Hobbes

At first I didn't care much for 'Leviathan'.  The first half dozen or so chapters involve Hobbes spelling out his definitions.  He opens by describing how the senses work, of all things.  ("The cause of Sense, is the Externall Body, or Object, which presseth the organ proper to each Sense...".)  Stylistically, I want to change every semi-colon to a period and limit the capital letters but, after some time you get into the rhythm of the piece.  There is a plan to all of this.  Hobbes says:

When a mans Discourse beginneth not at Definitions, it betinneth either at some other contemplation of his own, and then it is still called Opinion;

He didn't want to fall into that trap and her avoided it at length.  I'll admit that my mind wandered at times while going through these chapters of definitions.  I was looking forward to the political thoughts and this was definitely not that.  Oh, there were gems mixed in there.  After speaking about how sometimes a name can embody a whole set of concepts he says:

For all these words, Hee That In His Actions Observeth The Lawes Of His Country, make but one Name, equivalent to this one word, Just.

Another that I liked:

If Livy says the Gods made once a Cow speak, and we believe it not; wee distrust not God therin, but Livy.

It really wasn't until about two thirds of the way through the first book that Hobbes had me hooked.  Ready?

Out of Civil States, There is Alwayes Warre of Every ONe Against Every One Hereby. It is manifest, that during the time men live without a common Power to keep them all in awe, they are in that condition which is called Warre; and such a warre, as is of every man, against every man. For Warre, consisteth not in Battell onely, or the act of fighting; but in a tract of time, wherein the Will to contend by Battell is sufficiently known: and therefore the notion of Time, is to be considered in the nature of Warre; as it is in the nature of Weather. For as the nature of Foule weather, lyeth not in a ahowre or two of rain; but in an inclination thereto of many dayes together: So the nature of War, consisteth not in actuall fighting; but in the known dispostion thereto, during all the time there is no assurance to the contrary. All other time is PEACE.

In other words, without some kind of strong central power that everyone fears (respects?), then every person must be distrustful and in possible conflict with every other person.  If the police force disappeared tomorrow, and all laws were struck down, there would be some short time in which cultural inertia would keep us just.  But that would disappear in time and we would have bloody anarchy.
I'll admit that when I first read through this, I was doubtful.  Blame it on my libertarian leanings, if you'd like.  But it makes perfect sense.  In our modern society we have created certain institutions that are trusted as common power.  I mentioned the police force.  They are (mostly) trusted to do the right thing.  If my neighbor decides that he wants my TV, the police will be on my side.  As will the justice system, the legislature, public opinion, etc.  These common Powers are known and trusted and as a result I can live in PEACE with my neighbors.  Without this, Hobbes notes, then "the life of man [is], solitary, poore, nasty, brutish, and short."

Biography of Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes was born in April of 1588, the same year as the famous fight against the Spanish Armada.  He was born prematurely and he said that his mother 'gave birth to twins: myself and fear'.  His father was a vicar and his uncle was a merchant with no family of his own.  Hobbes started studying in Oxford in his middle teens.
While there he struck up a friendship with the son of William Cavendish, the Baron of Hardwick.  They went on the Grand Tour of Europe together.  There Hobbes was exposed to advanced ideas regarding science and philosophy, ideas which he thought were much better than the Scholastic philosophy taught at Oxford.
Hobbes studied ancient Greek and Latin authors in particular.  In 1628 he became the first to translate Thucydides 'History of the Peloponnesian War' into English.
He spent much of the 1630's in Paris, returning in 1637 to a country on the brink of civil war.  He wrote about politics and in 1640, he fled back to Paris out of fear over his writings.  In 1644, royalists also started taking refuge in Paris and for some time Hobbes became a teacher of mathematics to then Prince of Wales, future king Charles II.
In 1651 he published 'Leviathan' and it had a huge impact.  Some cheered him, some wanted him dead.  He was ousted from the company of the royalists and went back to England.
After the restoration of the monarchy, Charles II summoned him to court and gave him a pension.  His works remained controversial and he lived in fear of being killed as a heretic.  A bill was introduced in Parliament against atheism and profaneness.  Hobbes defended himself against charges of heresy but he was never able to publish on subjects of human conduct.  Instead, he wrote an autobiography and translations of the Iliad and the Odyssey.
Hobbes died in 1679.  His last words were 'a great leap in the dark'.

He was one of the earliest and most influential English writers on social contract theory.  He's one of the pillars of modern western thought.

Readings for August

Two pieces:


Hobbes: Leviathan (Part 1) link
Milton: Areopagitica link

Both of these pieces were written during the English civil war.  I happened to read some historical fiction set during the Restoration period, Neal Stephenson's 'Quicksilver' and that helped me understand what was going on.  Then I read part of Churchill's 'History of the English Speaking People', roughly the section that covers the 17the century, including all of the civil war.  That also helped me to understand what prompted these writings.