Thomas Hobbes (World Philosophers and Their Works)
Early Life
There is a self-generated folklore regarding Thomas Hobbes’s birth and the relation of that birth to his political ideas. According to Hobbes’s autobiography, his mother was much alarmed by the approaching Spanish Armada, an alarm that led to his premature birth on April 5, 1588. Thus, Hobbes claimed to have been born with an especially keen aversion to violence; he and fear were born twins, according to Hobbes. If his mother’s timidity explains his reverence for peace, however, what explains the ardor and stubbornness with which Hobbes later developed and...
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