HOW DID SCIENCE SHAPE
THE THINKING OF
Overview
• Definition of key terms
• Method vs. Content
• Influence of Geometry and Scientific Revolution
• Application to Political Philosophy
• Conclusion
• Questions
Hobbes’ Definition of Science
“…‘science’ is the knowledge of consequences, and
dependence of one fact upon another, by which, out of
that we can presently do, we know how to do
something else when we will, or the like another time;
because when we see how anything comes about,
upon what causes, and by what manner, when the like
causes come into our power, we see how to make it
produce the like effects”. (Leviathan, Chapter 5:17)
Continued…
• Devoted to the ‘new science’ of mechanical
philosophy which arose in the 1600s
• Used ‘resolutive-compositive’ method
Method vs. Content
• Scientific method as the fundamental framework of Hobbes’
political philosophy
• Scientific content not as influential – refuted the ideas held
by theorists popular in the C17 (example of Aristotle)
• Science proved things as irrefutably true
• In order to prove something to be certain, the claims on
which it depended had to first be established as certainties
• Not all methods were embraced by Hobbes
“It’s true that certain living
creatures, such as bees and ants, live
sociably with one another (which is
why Aristotle counts them among
the ‘political’ creatures…)…mankind
can’t do the same.” (Leviathan, Chapter 17:7)
Method vs. Content
• Scientific method as the fundamental framework of
Hobbes’ political philosophy
• Scientific content not as influential – refuted the ideas held
by theorists popular in the C17 (example of Aristotle)
• Science proved things as irrefutably true
• In order to prove something to be certain, the claims on
which it depended had to first be established as certainties
• Not all methods were embraced by Hobbes
Influence of Geometry
• Greatly influenced by Pythagorean and
Euclidean geometry
• Again, method not content
• Geometry reformed his approach to political
theory
• Irrefutable proofs
• Need for the standardised meanings of words
Influence of the Scientific Revolution
• Movement from c. 1550-1750 in which the
methodological approach to science was redefined
• The doctrine of reason and rationality used to
challenge accepted truths
• One should endeavour to prove theories for
themselves
Continued…
“…there can be no certainty of the
last conclusion without a certainty of
all those affirmations and negations
on which it was grounded and
inferred”. (Leviathan, Chapter 5:4)
Application to Political Philosophy
• Hobbes thought he had discovered the ‘science of
politics’
• The principles of science could establish civil peace
• A supreme judge was needed to determine which
claims were correct
Continued…
“…so also in any other subject of reasoning the
ablest, most attentive, and most practised men
may deceive themselves, and infer false
conclusions…no one man’s reason, nor the reason
of any one number of men, makes the
certainty…set up for right reason the reason of
some arbitrator, or judge, to whose sentence they
will both stand…” (Leviathan, Chapter 5:3)
Conclusion
• Science was intrinsic to Hobbes’ political
philosophy
• He was perhaps influenced more by method
than by ideas (not exclusively applicable)
• Impact of geometry and Scientific Revolution
• Discovery of a ‘political science’
Questions
• Was Hobbes’ thinking shaped more by a
rejection or adoption of contemporary scientific
knowledge?
• Where did Hobbes locate Medicine within the
field of science?