A Revaluation of the Philosophy of Hobbes

The theoretical philosophy of Thomas Hobbes has been depreciated as a typical dogmatism. His political philosophy and philosophy of religion incurred the hatred and aversion of both conservatives and democrats. Even those who highly esteemed his system advocated only a few parts of it, commending chiefly his historical merits as a pioneer of modern thought. He has seldom been placed among the first rank philosophers. But in spite of the undeniable fact that there are found over-simplifications in his statements, it should be pointed out that he had indeed sound and deep insights into the main philosophical issues. 1. It is generally well acknowledged that he avoided the errors of sheer rationalism and sheer empiricism. This is certainly out of his strong points. But is it only due to his accidental acquaintance with both sides? We may rather find his theory of language as the epistemological basis of his unique standpoint. 2. He was never a dogmatic materialist as he is usually thought to be, nor a subjective idealist as some have infered from his epistemology and especially from his method which supposed the universal annihilation of all things. We may rather construe his metaphysics as an idealism which goes freely over to realism and subsumes it. 3. The same way of thinking is more obvious in his practical and political philosophy. He grasped the natural rights and the natural laws in their mutual contradiction and oppsition, but this never implied the neglect of their fundamental unity. Here we can find the key to other philosophical difficulties in the fields of ethics and politics. His theory of sovereign power may seem to us unreasonable and disagreeable in contrast to that of the democrats. Nevertheless we must recognize that he had a deep insight into the nature of the matter. 4. He was admittedly a forerunner of free-thinkers, and yet he was at the same time criticized as an advocate of state interference in affairs of man's conscience. We have to say, however, that his theory of the relation between church and state reveals a good comprehension of the essential nature of religion. All such matters duly considered, in spite of his mechanical method of reasoning, the basic insight which constituted his philosophy may be characterized as dialectical. Although Hobbes himself never realized his own dialectic, it is possible for us so to interpret his philosophy and to revalue it dialectically. As it is, the philosophy looks as if teeming with sheer contradictions