WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.520 Welcome back to another deep dive. Today, we 00:00:02.520 --> 00:00:05.160 are opening a file that feels, I don't know, 00:00:05.160 --> 00:00:07.780 less like a philosophy lecture and more like 00:00:07.780 --> 00:00:10.779 a warning label for the entire human race. That's 00:00:10.779 --> 00:00:13.000 a good way to put it. We are tackling a figure 00:00:13.000 --> 00:00:16.519 who is, frankly, the bad boy of 17th century 00:00:16.519 --> 00:00:18.969 thought. We're talking about a man whose ideas 00:00:18.969 --> 00:00:22.510 were so controversial, so unsettling, that for 00:00:22.510 --> 00:00:25.250 a long time, his name was basically a dirty word 00:00:25.250 --> 00:00:27.989 in polite society. Oh, absolutely. We are talking 00:00:27.989 --> 00:00:30.710 about Thomas Hobbes. It is a name that inevitably 00:00:30.710 --> 00:00:33.689 comes up whenever you talk about power or government 00:00:33.689 --> 00:00:36.509 or just, you know, the darker alleys of human 00:00:36.509 --> 00:00:39.270 psychology. But you're right. He was a pariah. 00:00:39.289 --> 00:00:41.789 If you called someone a Hobbes in the 1670s. 00:00:42.219 --> 00:00:44.240 You weren't complimenting their intellect. No. 00:00:44.320 --> 00:00:46.299 You were calling them a godless, cynical monster. 00:00:46.640 --> 00:00:48.539 Which, I have to admit, makes me like him already. 00:00:48.719 --> 00:00:50.579 But usually people just know the catchphrases. 00:00:50.579 --> 00:00:53.380 They know nasty, brutish, and short. They know 00:00:53.380 --> 00:00:55.679 the Leviathan. And they kind of leave it at that. 00:00:56.090 --> 00:00:59.289 Exactly. And the mission for this deep dive is 00:00:59.289 --> 00:01:02.009 to get past the bumper stickers. We have a massive 00:01:02.009 --> 00:01:04.709 stack of notes here, biographical details, the 00:01:04.709 --> 00:01:07.890 dense text of Leviathan itself, accounts of his 00:01:07.890 --> 00:01:11.469 legendary and frankly petty feuds, and the bloody 00:01:11.469 --> 00:01:14.189 history of the English Civil War. Right. We want 00:01:14.189 --> 00:01:16.290 to understand why he thought the world was such 00:01:16.290 --> 00:01:18.569 a terrifying place and why he thought the only 00:01:18.569 --> 00:01:21.569 solution was a totalitarian monster he called 00:01:21.569 --> 00:01:24.120 the Leviathan. And it seems like to understand 00:01:24.120 --> 00:01:26.700 that fear, we had to go right back to the beginning, 00:01:26.859 --> 00:01:30.920 literally to the day he was born, April 5, 1588. 00:01:31.200 --> 00:01:32.939 The setting is incredibly cinematic. You have 00:01:32.939 --> 00:01:35.260 to picture England in a state of absolute panic. 00:01:35.400 --> 00:01:38.120 This isn't just a rainy Tuesday. The Spanish 00:01:38.120 --> 00:01:40.620 Armada is approaching. The most powerful invasion 00:01:40.620 --> 00:01:42.719 fleet in the world is sailing up the channel 00:01:42.719 --> 00:01:44.980 to conquer England, and the whole country is 00:01:44.980 --> 00:01:47.079 bracing for what looks like the apocalypse. The 00:01:47.079 --> 00:01:49.260 tension is just off the charts. National anxiety 00:01:49.260 --> 00:01:52.859 level at a million. A million, yeah. And in Westport, 00:01:52.939 --> 00:01:55.439 Wiltshire, Hobbes' mother hears the news of the 00:01:55.439 --> 00:01:58.439 approaching Armada. She is so utterly terrified 00:01:58.439 --> 00:02:00.680 by the prospect of invasion that she goes into 00:02:00.680 --> 00:02:03.579 labor prematurely. So he is literally born into 00:02:03.579 --> 00:02:06.319 a national panic attack. Precisely. Hobbes himself 00:02:06.319 --> 00:02:09.159 later wrote a famous line about this in his autobiography. 00:02:09.259 --> 00:02:12.800 He said, My mother gave birth to twins, myself 00:02:12.800 --> 00:02:17.680 and fear. Myself and fear. Wow, that really sets 00:02:17.680 --> 00:02:20.120 the tone, doesn't it? It's not just a witty anecdote 00:02:20.120 --> 00:02:22.650 to break the ice at parties. Not at all. It feels 00:02:22.650 --> 00:02:24.729 like the thesis statement for his entire life. 00:02:24.949 --> 00:02:27.550 It really is. Fear wasn't just an emotion for 00:02:27.550 --> 00:02:29.650 Hobbes. It was the engine of his philosophy. 00:02:29.990 --> 00:02:33.129 It was, for him, the fundamental reality of human 00:02:33.129 --> 00:02:35.729 existence. If you look at his life from that 00:02:35.729 --> 00:02:38.550 very first day, he is constantly running from 00:02:38.550 --> 00:02:41.370 chaos, running from violence, and trying to build 00:02:41.370 --> 00:02:44.569 this mental fortress to keep it all out. He's 00:02:44.569 --> 00:02:46.490 trying to solve the problem of fear. That's his 00:02:46.490 --> 00:02:48.870 whole project. And it wasn't just the Spanish 00:02:48.870 --> 00:02:51.919 Armada providing the chaos. His own family. situation 00:02:51.919 --> 00:02:54.039 was pretty unstable, right? I was looking at 00:02:54.039 --> 00:02:56.780 the notes on his father, Thomas Hobbes Sr., and 00:02:56.780 --> 00:02:59.060 this is not exactly the picture of a dignified 00:02:59.060 --> 00:03:01.819 Stoic clergyman. No, not at all. Far from it. 00:03:02.159 --> 00:03:04.919 His father was the vicar of Charlton and Westport, 00:03:05.020 --> 00:03:07.759 but the records we have suggest he was uneducated 00:03:07.759 --> 00:03:11.639 and, to quote one source, he disesteemed learning. 00:03:12.400 --> 00:03:14.379 Disesteemed learning. What does that even mean 00:03:14.379 --> 00:03:16.780 for a vicar? It means he could probably read 00:03:16.780 --> 00:03:19.419 the service, and that was about it. He wasn't 00:03:19.419 --> 00:03:22.000 a scholar. He wasn't an intellectual. He was, 00:03:22.020 --> 00:03:24.680 by all accounts, a bit of a hothead. And that 00:03:24.680 --> 00:03:27.080 leads to the inciting incident for the family. 00:03:27.240 --> 00:03:30.560 It does. It came when Thomas Sr. got into a fight. 00:03:30.699 --> 00:03:33.060 A theological debate. A scholarly disagreement. 00:03:33.419 --> 00:03:36.580 No, a physical fight. A brawl. With another clergyman. 00:03:36.699 --> 00:03:39.210 Right outside his own church. Wait, wait. He 00:03:39.210 --> 00:03:41.289 got into a fistfight with another priest right 00:03:41.289 --> 00:03:43.949 outside the church doors. Yes, in the churchyard, 00:03:44.030 --> 00:03:47.150 all places. And the scandal was so bad that he 00:03:47.150 --> 00:03:49.550 was excommunicated and forced to flee London. 00:03:49.830 --> 00:03:52.169 And in doing so, he just abandons the family. 00:03:52.270 --> 00:03:54.370 He abandoned them. He left his wife and three 00:03:54.370 --> 00:03:56.909 kids, including young Thomas, behind to fend 00:03:56.909 --> 00:03:59.129 for themselves, just vanished. That is heavy. 00:03:59.270 --> 00:04:02.250 So Hobbes is abandoned by his father because 00:04:02.250 --> 00:04:05.370 of a violent, irrational outburst that has to 00:04:05.370 --> 00:04:08.599 shape your view of human nature. How could it 00:04:08.599 --> 00:04:11.840 not? You see authority figures, people who are 00:04:11.840 --> 00:04:14.780 supposed to be moral leaders behaving like thugs. 00:04:15.180 --> 00:04:17.699 You learn that the people in charge aren't necessarily 00:04:17.699 --> 00:04:21.240 good or even rational. It absolutely does. It 00:04:21.240 --> 00:04:24.480 reinforces that idea that underneath the robes, 00:04:24.480 --> 00:04:27.560 underneath the titles, people are volatile. They're 00:04:27.560 --> 00:04:31.139 driven by passions, not by reason. But, as is 00:04:31.139 --> 00:04:33.220 often the case in these stories, a savior stepped 00:04:33.220 --> 00:04:36.540 in. A relative. Hobbes had a wealthy uncle named 00:04:36.540 --> 00:04:39.139 Francis. The glove manufacturer. That's the one. 00:04:39.680 --> 00:04:42.139 Francis was a successful glover, quite well off, 00:04:42.160 --> 00:04:44.720 with no family of his own, and he took over the 00:04:44.720 --> 00:04:47.319 care and education of young Thomas. And this 00:04:47.319 --> 00:04:49.439 is crucial. Right. Because without Uncle Francis' 00:04:49.620 --> 00:04:51.639 glove money, we probably never would have heard 00:04:51.639 --> 00:04:53.399 of Thomas Hobbes. He would have just been another 00:04:53.399 --> 00:04:55.660 poor kid in Wiltshire with an abandoned family. 00:04:55.860 --> 00:04:58.300 Because that money bought him a top -tier education. 00:04:59.000 --> 00:05:01.300 He goes to school in Malmesbury, then a private 00:05:01.300 --> 00:05:04.800 school, and eventually he heads to Oxford, Magdalene 00:05:04.800 --> 00:05:08.500 Hall. Now, I imagine a future philosopher would 00:05:08.500 --> 00:05:10.459 be in heaven at Oxford, but the notes say he 00:05:10.459 --> 00:05:12.980 wasn't exactly a model student. He was a good 00:05:12.980 --> 00:05:15.459 pupil in terms of his ability. I mean, he was 00:05:15.459 --> 00:05:19.220 brilliant, but he hated the curriculum. He found 00:05:19.220 --> 00:05:21.959 it profoundly boring. Okay, so you have to understand, 00:05:22.079 --> 00:05:25.879 at that time, Oxford was dominated by scholastic 00:05:25.879 --> 00:05:28.540 logic. Scholasticism. We hear that term a lot. 00:05:28.839 --> 00:05:31.079 Break it down for us. What was he actually sitting 00:05:31.079 --> 00:05:33.079 through in class? What were these debates about? 00:05:33.360 --> 00:05:35.620 It was very Aristotle heavy, very traditional, 00:05:35.639 --> 00:05:38.300 and very, very focused on abstract theological 00:05:38.300 --> 00:05:41.560 definitions. They would spend weeks, literally 00:05:41.560 --> 00:05:45.279 weeks, debating the essence of an object or the 00:05:45.279 --> 00:05:49.040 nature of substance versus accident. Give me 00:05:49.040 --> 00:05:50.839 an example. What's a scholastic argument? Okay, 00:05:50.879 --> 00:05:52.879 so they might argue about how many angels can 00:05:52.879 --> 00:05:55.360 dance on the head of a pin, or they debate the 00:05:55.360 --> 00:05:57.860 metaphysics of the Eucharist. To Hobbes, it felt 00:05:57.860 --> 00:06:00.420 like word games. He thought it was just jargon 00:06:00.420 --> 00:06:02.660 designed to confuse people and that had absolutely 00:06:02.660 --> 00:06:05.319 nothing to do with the real physical world. So 00:06:05.319 --> 00:06:07.139 he basically checked out and followed his own 00:06:07.139 --> 00:06:09.019 curriculum. Pretty much. He wasn't interested 00:06:09.019 --> 00:06:11.060 in the stuffy lectures. He was spending his time 00:06:11.060 --> 00:06:13.339 at book binders, looking at maps, reading histories 00:06:13.339 --> 00:06:16.220 of exploration. This is the first real sign of 00:06:16.220 --> 00:06:18.920 his intellectual rebellion. Right. He was rejecting 00:06:18.920 --> 00:06:21.939 the wisdom of the ancients, specifically Aristotle, 00:06:22.360 --> 00:06:25.019 which was a dangerous, almost heretical thing 00:06:25.019 --> 00:06:27.160 to do in a university. setting at that time. 00:06:27.399 --> 00:06:30.019 He thought the old philosophy was just cobwebs 00:06:30.019 --> 00:06:31.899 that needed to be swept away. So he graduates 00:06:31.899 --> 00:06:35.180 from Cambridge in 1608, and then he lands a job 00:06:35.180 --> 00:06:38.180 that basically sets him up for life. He becomes 00:06:38.180 --> 00:06:40.839 a tutor. But not just any tutor. He is recommended 00:06:40.839 --> 00:06:43.879 to the Cavendish family, the Earls of Devonshire. 00:06:44.319 --> 00:06:47.319 This is one of the most powerful, wealthy, and 00:06:47.319 --> 00:06:49.660 influential families in all of England. And this 00:06:49.660 --> 00:06:51.680 wasn't a short gig. He was with them for life. 00:06:51.819 --> 00:06:54.810 Practically. He started by tutoring William Cavendish, 00:06:54.930 --> 00:06:57.069 who would become the second Earl of Devonshire, 00:06:57.110 --> 00:06:59.529 and then later he tutored his son, the third 00:06:59.529 --> 00:07:02.170 Earl. He even had a hand in tutoring the generation 00:07:02.170 --> 00:07:04.990 after that. This connection was his lifeline. 00:07:05.089 --> 00:07:07.129 It gave him everything. Everything. A massive 00:07:07.129 --> 00:07:09.509 library, financial security, powerful protection, 00:07:09.810 --> 00:07:12.529 and most importantly, travel. The Grand Tour. 00:07:13.100 --> 00:07:17.100 Exactly. Between 1610 and 1615, he travels all 00:07:17.100 --> 00:07:19.180 over Europe with the young William Cavendish. 00:07:19.220 --> 00:07:21.439 And this is where the real transformation happens. 00:07:21.699 --> 00:07:24.540 He leaves the stuffy, backward -looking atmosphere 00:07:24.540 --> 00:07:27.439 of Oxford and steps into the vibrant, intellectual 00:07:27.439 --> 00:07:29.560 world of the continent. This is where he starts 00:07:29.560 --> 00:07:32.319 moving away from just philosophy. Yeah. And gets 00:07:32.319 --> 00:07:35.220 deep into science and critical methods. The scientific 00:07:35.220 --> 00:07:37.699 revolution is happening in real time all around 00:07:37.699 --> 00:07:40.560 him. It is. He's in France. He's in Italy. He's 00:07:40.560 --> 00:07:42.779 meeting people who are actually measuring the 00:07:42.779 --> 00:07:44.699 world, not just arguing about what Aristotle 00:07:44.699 --> 00:07:46.819 said about it. And there is one meeting in particular 00:07:46.819 --> 00:07:49.680 on a later tour that stands out in all the sources. 00:07:50.000 --> 00:07:54.060 He met Galileo. He met Galileo in 1636. He visited 00:07:54.060 --> 00:07:56.639 him in Florence. While Galileo was under house 00:07:56.639 --> 00:07:58.939 arrest by the Inquisition. Yes. For saying the 00:07:58.939 --> 00:08:01.019 earth moves around the sun. Imagine that. scene, 00:08:01.120 --> 00:08:03.720 you have Hobbes, this guy who is desperately 00:08:03.720 --> 00:08:06.360 looking for a new certain way to explain the 00:08:06.360 --> 00:08:08.839 world, meaning the very man who would revolutionize 00:08:08.839 --> 00:08:11.199 the understanding of the physical universe. And 00:08:11.199 --> 00:08:14.279 Galileo had done it with math. He had shown that 00:08:14.279 --> 00:08:16.720 the planets move according to precise, predictable 00:08:16.720 --> 00:08:21.000 mathematical law, laws of motion, inertia, velocity. 00:08:21.199 --> 00:08:23.420 Right. The universe wasn't being pushed around 00:08:23.420 --> 00:08:26.360 by angels or mystical forces. It was matter in 00:08:26.360 --> 00:08:29.040 motion. And you could understand it. And Hobbes 00:08:29.040 --> 00:08:32.700 has an aha. A life -changing insight. A massive 00:08:32.700 --> 00:08:36.120 one. He thinks, if we can explain the movement 00:08:36.120 --> 00:08:39.379 of planets with geometry and physics, why can't 00:08:39.379 --> 00:08:42.360 we explain human beings the same way? So humans 00:08:42.360 --> 00:08:45.360 as matter in motion. Precisely. He starts to 00:08:45.360 --> 00:08:47.940 view human beings not as souls with divine sparks, 00:08:48.059 --> 00:08:51.679 but as biological machines. We are matter. We 00:08:51.679 --> 00:08:54.610 are driven by push and pull. Desire or appetite 00:08:54.610 --> 00:08:57.269 pushes us towards something. Fear or aversion 00:08:57.269 --> 00:08:59.129 pulls us away from something else. It's just 00:08:59.129 --> 00:09:00.850 mechanics. It's all mechanics. And if you can 00:09:00.850 --> 00:09:02.649 understand the mechanics of human nature, you 00:09:02.649 --> 00:09:05.789 can build a perfect state, a machine state, a 00:09:05.789 --> 00:09:08.169 government that works as predictably as a clock. 00:09:08.330 --> 00:09:11.169 So he wants to apply geometry to politics. He 00:09:11.169 --> 00:09:13.450 wants to solve the problem of society like it's 00:09:13.450 --> 00:09:16.500 a math equation. That is his grand ambition. 00:09:16.860 --> 00:09:20.159 He wants a political science that is as certain 00:09:20.159 --> 00:09:23.879 and undeniable as a geometric proof. If A equals 00:09:23.879 --> 00:09:27.639 B and B equals C, then we must have a king. He 00:09:27.639 --> 00:09:29.279 wants to remove all the guesswork, all the emotion, 00:09:29.419 --> 00:09:32.399 all the religion. Just cold, hard logic. The 00:09:32.399 --> 00:09:34.539 hardest logic he can find. But before he can 00:09:34.539 --> 00:09:38.059 finish this grand logical theory, reality intervenes 00:09:38.059 --> 00:09:40.659 again. The chaos he's always running from comes 00:09:40.659 --> 00:09:43.149 home. The English Civil War. OK, let's unpack 00:09:43.149 --> 00:09:45.389 the context here because it's crucial. We are 00:09:45.389 --> 00:09:48.750 moving into the 1640s. England is a tinderbox. 00:09:48.850 --> 00:09:50.929 You have the parliamentarians on one side, the 00:09:50.929 --> 00:09:53.070 royalists on the other. It's a religious and 00:09:53.070 --> 00:09:55.409 political power struggle that is going to tear 00:09:55.409 --> 00:09:58.029 the country apart. And Hobbes, with his incredible 00:09:58.029 --> 00:10:00.909 sensitivity to danger, remember the twins, himself 00:10:00.909 --> 00:10:04.070 and fear, he smells the smoke before the fire 00:10:04.070 --> 00:10:07.190 really takes hold. In 1640, the political situation 00:10:07.190 --> 00:10:09.830 deteriorates rapidly. The short parliament is 00:10:09.830 --> 00:10:12.710 dissolved. The long parliament begins. and Hobbes 00:10:12.710 --> 00:10:15.309 feels that he is in danger. Why him specifically? 00:10:15.629 --> 00:10:17.929 He had written a treatise not for publication, 00:10:18.009 --> 00:10:20.909 but it was circulating in manuscript form. It 00:10:20.909 --> 00:10:23.809 was called The Elements of Law, Natural and Politic, 00:10:23.830 --> 00:10:26.809 and it was a very forceful defense of the king's 00:10:26.809 --> 00:10:29.389 absolute authority. And in the current climate, 00:10:29.470 --> 00:10:31.649 with Parliament challenging the king, having 00:10:31.649 --> 00:10:34.190 your name on a document that says the king is 00:10:34.190 --> 00:10:37.490 the boss, period. was a dangerous thing. Very 00:10:37.490 --> 00:10:39.750 dangerous. Parliament was flexing its muscles 00:10:39.750 --> 00:10:42.009 and men who supported the king were being targeted. 00:10:42.409 --> 00:10:45.710 So, true to his nature, Hobbes flees. He goes 00:10:45.710 --> 00:10:48.289 to Paris in November 1640 and he doesn't come 00:10:48.289 --> 00:10:50.690 back for 11 years. So he sits out the entire 00:10:50.690 --> 00:10:53.929 Civil War in exile. He does. But he isn't just 00:10:53.929 --> 00:10:56.710 sitting around in Parisian cafes eating croissants. 00:10:56.850 --> 00:10:59.389 He is watching the news from home with absolute 00:10:59.389 --> 00:11:01.970 horror. He sees his country descending into the 00:11:01.970 --> 00:11:04.710 exact anarchy he always feared. It wasn't just 00:11:04.710 --> 00:11:06.909 a political disagreement. It was a bloodbath. 00:11:07.110 --> 00:11:10.509 It was a total societal breakdown. Neighbors 00:11:10.509 --> 00:11:12.529 fighting neighbors, the breakdown of law, of 00:11:12.529 --> 00:11:15.009 order, of everything. And eventually the unthinkable 00:11:15.009 --> 00:11:18.389 happens. The king, Charles I, is captured, tried, 00:11:18.529 --> 00:11:20.649 and executed. Regicide. They chop off the head 00:11:20.649 --> 00:11:23.279 of the king. For a man like Hobbes, who believed 00:11:23.279 --> 00:11:26.620 in absolute undivided authority, seeing the head 00:11:26.620 --> 00:11:29.360 of the state literally chopped off was like watching 00:11:29.360 --> 00:11:32.350 the sun fall out of the sky. it confirmed his 00:11:32.350 --> 00:11:35.529 absolute worst fears. When authority crumbles, 00:11:35.750 --> 00:11:38.909 society dissolves into a war of all against all. 00:11:39.110 --> 00:11:41.549 And while he's in Paris, he actually gets a very 00:11:41.549 --> 00:11:45.289 high -profile student, right? Yes. In 1646, he 00:11:45.289 --> 00:11:47.429 becomes the mathematical instructor to the young 00:11:47.429 --> 00:11:50.450 Prince of Wales, the future Charles II, who was 00:11:50.450 --> 00:11:52.710 also living in exile after his father's defeat. 00:11:52.909 --> 00:11:54.470 That is a connection that will save his neck 00:11:54.470 --> 00:11:57.210 later on. But let's focus on the writing. This 00:11:57.210 --> 00:11:59.710 exile period is the crucible for his masterpiece, 00:12:00.009 --> 00:12:03.019 Boviathan. It is. You have to understand, Leviathan 00:12:03.019 --> 00:12:05.340 isn't written in a quiet, peaceful ivory tower. 00:12:05.500 --> 00:12:07.519 It's a survival guide for a shattered nation. 00:12:08.080 --> 00:12:09.960 Hobbes is looking at the carnage of the Civil 00:12:09.960 --> 00:12:12.259 War and asking, how do we stop this from ever, 00:12:12.320 --> 00:12:14.480 ever happening again? And there was a personal 00:12:14.480 --> 00:12:16.659 element of urgency, too. He nearly died of an 00:12:16.659 --> 00:12:20.139 illness in 1647, right? Yes. He was bedridden 00:12:20.139 --> 00:12:22.879 for six months with a severe fever. He thought 00:12:22.879 --> 00:12:25.659 he was dying. And I think that brush with death 00:12:25.659 --> 00:12:28.799 added this incredible sense of urgency. He needed 00:12:28.799 --> 00:12:31.340 to get the solution down on paper. He felt he 00:12:31.340 --> 00:12:33.779 had the answer to perpetual peace, and he had 00:12:33.779 --> 00:12:36.500 to publish it before he or his country died for 00:12:36.500 --> 00:12:40.399 good. So let's dive into the book itself. Leviathan? 00:12:40.750 --> 00:12:43.769 Published in 1651, it starts with this famous 00:12:43.769 --> 00:12:46.029 thought experiment. He strips everything away. 00:12:46.129 --> 00:12:49.889 Government, laws, police, society. He deletes 00:12:49.889 --> 00:12:51.870 it all to see what's left. He wants to see what 00:12:51.870 --> 00:12:55.009 human nature is in its raw, unfiltered state. 00:12:55.210 --> 00:12:57.929 He calls it the state of nature. Right. And unlike 00:12:57.929 --> 00:12:59.549 some other philosophers who think, oh, without 00:12:59.549 --> 00:13:02.190 rules, people would be noble savages living in 00:13:02.190 --> 00:13:04.789 harmony. Hobbes has a very, very different view. 00:13:04.929 --> 00:13:07.570 He has a materialist view. Remember, we are machines 00:13:07.570 --> 00:13:10.379 driven by appetites and aversions. In the state 00:13:10.379 --> 00:13:12.639 of nature, every single person has what he calls 00:13:12.639 --> 00:13:14.980 a right to everything. A right to everything. 00:13:15.100 --> 00:13:17.120 That sounds liberating. It sounds great for about 00:13:17.120 --> 00:13:19.379 five seconds until you realize everyone else 00:13:19.379 --> 00:13:21.379 has it too. If I want your food, I have a right 00:13:21.379 --> 00:13:23.120 to take it. If you want my shelter, you have 00:13:23.120 --> 00:13:25.019 a right to take it. There is no mine in mine. 00:13:25.440 --> 00:13:28.360 There is no property. There is just, can I take 00:13:28.360 --> 00:13:30.879 it and can I keep it? And since everyone generally 00:13:30.879 --> 00:13:33.500 wants the same things, food, safety, resources. 00:13:33.919 --> 00:13:36.879 You get conflict. Constant, unavoidable conflict. 00:13:37.399 --> 00:13:40.559 Hobbes famously calls it bellum omnium contra 00:13:40.559 --> 00:13:43.840 omnes, the war of all against all. And it's not 00:13:43.840 --> 00:13:45.960 that everyone is evil necessarily. That's a common 00:13:45.960 --> 00:13:48.100 misreading. It's a very common misreading. He's 00:13:48.100 --> 00:13:50.500 not saying we're all psychopaths. He's saying 00:13:50.500 --> 00:13:53.539 the situation itself, the logic of the situation 00:13:53.539 --> 00:13:57.399 makes us killers. Imagine there are two of you 00:13:57.399 --> 00:14:00.590 and one apple. There's no referee. The rational 00:14:00.590 --> 00:14:03.049 thing to do is fight for it. And because there's 00:14:03.049 --> 00:14:06.009 no referee, there can be no trust. This is the 00:14:06.009 --> 00:14:09.009 key concept. Dividends. Exactly. Even if you 00:14:09.009 --> 00:14:11.049 are a nice person, you can't trust that I'm a 00:14:11.049 --> 00:14:13.230 nice person. You have to assume I might kill 00:14:13.230 --> 00:14:15.830 you in your sleep to take your stuff. So, your 00:14:15.830 --> 00:14:18.289 best strategy, your most rational move, is to 00:14:18.289 --> 00:14:21.250 kill me first. A preemptive strike. It becomes 00:14:21.250 --> 00:14:24.470 a spiral of paranoia and violence. It's the prisoner's 00:14:24.470 --> 00:14:27.250 dilemma played out on a global societal scale. 00:14:27.710 --> 00:14:30.309 Nobody wants this war, but everyone is forced 00:14:30.309 --> 00:14:32.929 to participate in it to survive. And this leads 00:14:32.929 --> 00:14:35.490 to that famous devastating passage. I have it 00:14:35.490 --> 00:14:38.470 here. He describes what is missing in this state. 00:14:38.730 --> 00:14:41.990 He says, in such condition, there is no place 00:14:41.990 --> 00:14:44.769 for industry, no culture of the earth, no navigation, 00:14:45.090 --> 00:14:48.289 no commodious building, no arts, no letters, 00:14:48.330 --> 00:14:51.210 no society. He is describing the total collapse 00:14:51.210 --> 00:14:53.830 of civilization. You can't build a house because 00:14:53.830 --> 00:14:55.470 someone will take it. You can't plant a crop 00:14:55.470 --> 00:14:57.470 because someone will steal it. No infrastructure, 00:14:57.690 --> 00:15:00.230 no trade, no art, just moment to moment survival. 00:15:00.610 --> 00:15:02.809 And then the kicker, the line everyone knows, 00:15:02.929 --> 00:15:05.879 and which is worst of all. Continual fear and 00:15:05.879 --> 00:15:08.000 danger of violent death and the life of man, 00:15:08.159 --> 00:15:11.519 solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short. Nasty, 00:15:11.580 --> 00:15:13.600 brutish and short. It is one of the most powerful 00:15:13.600 --> 00:15:16.200 and bleak descriptions of human misery ever written. 00:15:16.340 --> 00:15:18.559 And for Hobbes, looking across the channel at 00:15:18.559 --> 00:15:20.659 the Civil War, this wasn't an abstract fantasy. 00:15:20.799 --> 00:15:23.019 He was seeing it happen. He was saying this is 00:15:23.019 --> 00:15:25.340 the default setting of humanity if we don't have 00:15:25.340 --> 00:15:28.440 a lid on us. OK, so if the state of nature is 00:15:28.440 --> 00:15:32.080 a horror show, how do we get out? What is the 00:15:32.080 --> 00:15:35.330 escape hatch? Reason. Fear drives us into this 00:15:35.330 --> 00:15:38.470 mess, but reason guides us out. We are rational 00:15:38.470 --> 00:15:40.830 animals. We realize that living in constant fear 00:15:40.830 --> 00:15:42.629 of being murdered is a terrible way to live. 00:15:42.970 --> 00:15:45.730 We want safety. We want to be able to farm our 00:15:45.730 --> 00:15:47.730 land without someone stealing the harvest. We 00:15:47.730 --> 00:15:50.450 want to live. We want to live. So we make a deal, 00:15:50.490 --> 00:15:53.830 a contract, the famous social contract. How does 00:15:53.830 --> 00:15:55.549 the deal work? What are the terms and conditions? 00:15:55.889 --> 00:15:58.529 The first step is that we all agree to lay down 00:15:58.529 --> 00:16:01.110 our right to everything. I agree not to kill 00:16:01.110 --> 00:16:02.929 you for your shoes, provided you agree not to 00:16:02.929 --> 00:16:05.330 kill me for mine. It's a mutual disarmament. 00:16:05.409 --> 00:16:07.250 We give up our natural liberty to do whatever 00:16:07.250 --> 00:16:10.389 we want. But wait, that feels slimsy. If I promise 00:16:10.389 --> 00:16:12.210 not to kill you, what stops me from breaking 00:16:12.210 --> 00:16:14.149 that promise the moment your back is turned and 00:16:14.149 --> 00:16:16.330 I see an opportunity? That is the crucial point. 00:16:16.389 --> 00:16:18.450 That's the million dollar question. And Hobbes 00:16:18.450 --> 00:16:21.700 has a famous line for that, too. He says. Covenants 00:16:21.700 --> 00:16:24.720 without the sword are but words and of no strength 00:16:24.720 --> 00:16:28.000 to secure a man at all. Promises mean nothing 00:16:28.000 --> 00:16:30.600 if there isn't a force to back them up. Nothing. 00:16:30.840 --> 00:16:33.340 You can't trust me. I can't trust you. We need 00:16:33.340 --> 00:16:35.759 an enforcer, a third party with overwhelming 00:16:35.759 --> 00:16:38.879 power to punish anyone who breaks the deal. Enter 00:16:38.879 --> 00:16:42.200 the Leviathan. The sovereign. We take all that 00:16:42.200 --> 00:16:44.100 power we had in the state of nature, the right 00:16:44.100 --> 00:16:46.559 to judge, the right to punish, the right to make 00:16:46.559 --> 00:16:49.779 war, and we hand it all over to one central authority. 00:16:50.330 --> 00:16:52.990 Whether it's a man or an assembly of men. We 00:16:52.990 --> 00:16:55.809 give all our power to one entity. We authorize 00:16:55.809 --> 00:16:58.610 him. We say, you keep the peace. You punish the 00:16:58.610 --> 00:17:01.730 rule breakers. You hold the sword. And in exchange, 00:17:01.950 --> 00:17:05.210 we will obey you absolutely. And the visual for 00:17:05.210 --> 00:17:07.259 this is iconic. The friendliest piece of the 00:17:07.259 --> 00:17:09.980 book, the cover image. It is unforgettable. It 00:17:09.980 --> 00:17:13.579 shows this giant king, a colossal figure, towering 00:17:13.579 --> 00:17:15.660 over the landscape, holding a sword in one hand 00:17:15.660 --> 00:17:18.119 and a bishop's crozier in the other. Symbolizing 00:17:18.119 --> 00:17:20.299 his control over both civil and religious power. 00:17:20.480 --> 00:17:22.900 Exactly. But if you look closely at the engraving, 00:17:22.920 --> 00:17:25.960 his body isn't made of armor or skin. It is made 00:17:25.960 --> 00:17:28.480 of thousands and thousands of tiny little people, 00:17:28.519 --> 00:17:31.319 all facing inward, looking up at the head. That's 00:17:31.319 --> 00:17:35.539 us, the citizens. Yes. We are the Leviathan. 00:17:35.599 --> 00:17:38.319 We created him from our collective will. We authorized 00:17:38.319 --> 00:17:41.019 him. He acts with our collective strength. We 00:17:41.019 --> 00:17:43.799 are the body. He is the soul. But the catch is, 00:17:43.859 --> 00:17:47.890 this power has to be absolute. Right. Hobbes 00:17:47.890 --> 00:17:50.509 doesn't want checks and balances. He's not Montesquieu. 00:17:50.609 --> 00:17:53.309 He hates checks and balances. He loathes them. 00:17:53.690 --> 00:17:56.410 He looks at the English Civil War and says, why 00:17:56.410 --> 00:17:59.349 did this happen? Because power was divided. You 00:17:59.349 --> 00:18:01.390 had the king on one side, parliament on the other. 00:18:01.569 --> 00:18:03.589 You had the church making claims against the 00:18:03.589 --> 00:18:05.789 state. When you have two bosses, you have conflict. 00:18:05.849 --> 00:18:08.710 You have civil war. For Hobbes, power must be 00:18:08.710 --> 00:18:11.369 absolute and undivided. The sovereign controls 00:18:11.369 --> 00:18:15.089 the military, the judiciary, the laws, what can 00:18:15.089 --> 00:18:16.809 be published, what can be taught in universities, 00:18:17.289 --> 00:18:19.710 and even the church. Even a church. That seems 00:18:19.710 --> 00:18:21.670 like a massive overreach, especially for the 00:18:21.670 --> 00:18:23.990 17th century. Especially the church. Hobbes saw 00:18:23.990 --> 00:18:26.190 religious disagreement as a primary cause of 00:18:26.190 --> 00:18:28.250 civil war. If the pope tells you to do one thing 00:18:28.250 --> 00:18:29.789 and the king tells you to do another, who do 00:18:29.789 --> 00:18:33.029 you obey? That division leads to bloodshed. So 00:18:33.029 --> 00:18:35.450 the solution? The sovereign must decide what 00:18:35.450 --> 00:18:37.630 religious doctrines are to be taught. The sovereign 00:18:37.630 --> 00:18:39.750 controls the pulpit to ensure that the messages 00:18:39.750 --> 00:18:43.630 always, always obey the law. Religion becomes 00:18:43.630 --> 00:18:47.529 a tool of the state to ensure peace. That seems 00:18:47.529 --> 00:18:51.789 intense. So let me play devil's advocate. What 00:18:51.789 --> 00:18:53.690 if the sovereign is a tyrant? What if he's a 00:18:53.690 --> 00:18:56.890 bad king? Can we revolt? Can we have a revolution? 00:18:57.230 --> 00:18:59.539 Yeah. That's a short answer. It's an absolute 00:18:59.539 --> 00:19:02.119 answer. Under Hobbes' system, you cannot revolt. 00:19:02.359 --> 00:19:04.900 Why? Because you authorized the sovereign. You 00:19:04.900 --> 00:19:07.299 created him. To attack the sovereign is to attack 00:19:07.299 --> 00:19:09.380 yourself. It's illogical. So you're basically 00:19:09.380 --> 00:19:11.519 attacking the peace you created. You are voting 00:19:11.519 --> 00:19:14.119 to return to the state of nature. And more importantly, 00:19:14.299 --> 00:19:16.460 Hobbes would ask you, is the tyrant worse than 00:19:16.460 --> 00:19:19.180 the Civil War? Is paying high taxes worse than 00:19:19.180 --> 00:19:21.000 having your throat cut by your neighbor? And 00:19:21.000 --> 00:19:23.420 for him, the answer is always no. Always no. 00:19:23.849 --> 00:19:26.150 Any government, no matter how oppressive, is 00:19:26.150 --> 00:19:29.289 better than the war of all against all. The only 00:19:29.289 --> 00:19:31.490 time you can resist is if the sovereign tries 00:19:31.490 --> 00:19:34.349 to kill you directly. The right to self -preservation 00:19:34.349 --> 00:19:36.970 is the one right you can never give up. But other 00:19:36.970 --> 00:19:40.069 than that, you obey. You sit down, you pay your 00:19:40.069 --> 00:19:43.690 taxes, and you obey. So he publishes this book, 00:19:43.849 --> 00:19:48.109 Leviathan, in 1651. He probably thought, I have 00:19:48.109 --> 00:19:50.250 solved politics. Everyone is going to thank me 00:19:50.250 --> 00:19:52.740 for bringing logic to the chaos. He might have 00:19:52.740 --> 00:19:55.200 thought that. He certainly had the ego for it. 00:19:55.460 --> 00:19:57.779 But in reality, he managed to achieve something 00:19:57.779 --> 00:20:00.579 truly impressive. What's that? He angered absolutely 00:20:00.579 --> 00:20:03.519 everyone, all sides, all factions. Okay, let's 00:20:03.519 --> 00:20:05.859 break down the backlash. Who was mad at him and 00:20:05.859 --> 00:20:08.319 why? Well, start with the royalists. These are 00:20:08.319 --> 00:20:10.240 supposed to be his people. He's in exile with 00:20:10.240 --> 00:20:12.079 them in Paris. He's teaching the future king. 00:20:12.680 --> 00:20:15.799 But they hated Leviathan. Why? I don't get it. 00:20:15.819 --> 00:20:18.019 He was arguing for an absolute king. That should 00:20:18.019 --> 00:20:20.099 be their jam. Yes, but he was arguing for it 00:20:20.099 --> 00:20:22.759 for all the wrong reasons. The royalists believed 00:20:22.759 --> 00:20:25.579 in the divine right of kings, that God puts the 00:20:25.579 --> 00:20:27.640 king on the throne and he answers only to God. 00:20:27.859 --> 00:20:31.150 Hobbes said, No, the people put the king on the 00:20:31.150 --> 00:20:33.130 throne through a contract because they're scared 00:20:33.130 --> 00:20:36.509 of dying. That takes all the magic, all the divinity 00:20:36.509 --> 00:20:39.690 out of it. It makes monarchy a pragmatic solution, 00:20:39.930 --> 00:20:43.450 not a divine institution. It makes it transactional. 00:20:43.470 --> 00:20:46.029 It makes the king an employee of the people's 00:20:46.029 --> 00:20:49.569 safety in a weird way. Exactly. And worse, much 00:20:49.569 --> 00:20:52.410 worse, Hobbes argued that your obligation to 00:20:52.410 --> 00:20:54.750 obey a sovereign only lasts as long as he can 00:20:54.750 --> 00:20:58.450 protect you. So if a sovereign loses a war, and 00:20:58.450 --> 00:21:01.089 a new power takes over. So if the parliamentarians 00:21:01.089 --> 00:21:03.710 win the Civil War and establish control. Hobbes' 00:21:03.750 --> 00:21:06.710 logic implies you should obey them now. Because 00:21:06.710 --> 00:21:08.490 they're the ones holding the sword. They're the 00:21:08.490 --> 00:21:10.809 ones who can protect you. This looked like treason 00:21:10.809 --> 00:21:12.750 to the royalists in exile. They thought he was 00:21:12.750 --> 00:21:14.670 writing a justification for submitting to Oliver 00:21:14.670 --> 00:21:17.089 Cromwell and the new revolutionary government 00:21:17.089 --> 00:21:19.549 back in London. Wow. So the royalists hate him. 00:21:19.609 --> 00:21:21.970 What about the church? The Anglicans? The Catholics? 00:21:22.289 --> 00:21:24.069 They hated him even more, if that's possible. 00:21:24.849 --> 00:21:26.890 Anglicans, Catholics, Presbyterians, they all 00:21:26.890 --> 00:21:29.670 found something to despise in Leviathan. It was 00:21:29.670 --> 00:21:32.559 an equal opportunity offender. Completely. He 00:21:32.559 --> 00:21:35.019 subordinated the church to the state, which they 00:21:35.019 --> 00:21:38.500 hated. He interpreted scripture in a very bizarre, 00:21:38.700 --> 00:21:41.059 materialistic way that stripped the supernatural 00:21:41.059 --> 00:21:45.400 out of religion. He just gave off this secularist 00:21:45.400 --> 00:21:47.759 spirit that terrified them. It got so bad that 00:21:47.759 --> 00:21:50.019 he was actually in physical danger in Paris, 00:21:50.140 --> 00:21:52.750 right, from the English court in exile. The royalists 00:21:52.750 --> 00:21:55.349 might have had him arrested or worse. The French 00:21:55.349 --> 00:21:57.430 Catholic authorities were also deeply suspicious 00:21:57.430 --> 00:22:00.369 of the book's irreligious tone. He was effectively 00:22:00.369 --> 00:22:02.950 banished from the court of the exiled King Charles. 00:22:03.130 --> 00:22:05.950 So ironically, the man who fled England to escape 00:22:05.950 --> 00:22:08.549 the war had to flee back to England in the winter 00:22:08.549 --> 00:22:12.789 of 1651 because his allies in Paris wanted his 00:22:12.789 --> 00:22:15.509 head. That's incredible. He returns to London, 00:22:15.690 --> 00:22:18.089 submits to Cromwell's Council of State, and is 00:22:18.089 --> 00:22:21.460 allowed to retire to private life. But the controversy 00:22:21.460 --> 00:22:24.119 didn't stop. Hobbism became a thing. It became 00:22:24.119 --> 00:22:26.799 a slur. It was a McCarthyism of the 17th century. 00:22:26.920 --> 00:22:29.440 If you wanted to call someone immoral, atheistic, 00:22:29.500 --> 00:22:31.799 cynical, or someone who believed makes right, 00:22:32.000 --> 00:22:34.519 you called them a Hobbist. And the atheist label 00:22:34.519 --> 00:22:37.019 stuck to him like glue for the rest of his life. 00:22:37.119 --> 00:22:40.160 Was he an atheist? It is a very complicated question. 00:22:41.160 --> 00:22:44.539 In the 17th century, the word atheist was a much 00:22:44.539 --> 00:22:47.460 broader term than it is today. It could just 00:22:47.460 --> 00:22:49.480 mean you disagreed with the church's official 00:22:49.480 --> 00:22:51.680 view of divine providence. It was an all -purpose 00:22:51.680 --> 00:22:54.920 insult for a heretic. Exactly. Hobbes himself 00:22:54.920 --> 00:22:58.160 always claimed to be a Christian. He wrote extensively 00:22:58.160 --> 00:23:01.420 about scripture, but his theology was, well, 00:23:01.500 --> 00:23:03.759 it was unique. Unique, how? Materialism, again. 00:23:03.859 --> 00:23:06.500 For Hobbes, if something exists, it has to have 00:23:06.500 --> 00:23:09.869 a body. has to take up space. So he argued that 00:23:09.869 --> 00:23:12.769 everything is matter, corporeal. That includes 00:23:12.769 --> 00:23:15.509 the soul. And it even includes God. He argued 00:23:15.509 --> 00:23:17.890 that God is made of matter. Yeah. That God is 00:23:17.890 --> 00:23:20.450 a physical being. He argued that to be a substance 00:23:20.450 --> 00:23:23.869 means to be a body. He said the phrase incorporeal 00:23:23.869 --> 00:23:26.049 substance, which theologians use to describe 00:23:26.049 --> 00:23:28.529 God and the soul, was a contradiction in terms, 00:23:28.529 --> 00:23:30.970 like calling something a round square. He said 00:23:30.970 --> 00:23:33.029 it was just meaningless noise. I can see why 00:23:33.029 --> 00:23:34.829 the bishops were reaching for the pitchforks. 00:23:35.079 --> 00:23:38.779 It was profoundly scandalous, and it got very, 00:23:38.839 --> 00:23:42.140 very real for him in 1666. After the Restoration, 00:23:42.259 --> 00:23:44.700 when Charles II came back to the throne, a couple 00:23:44.700 --> 00:23:47.880 of disasters hit London. The Great Plague, 1665, 00:23:48.119 --> 00:23:51.480 and then the Great Fire of London in 1666. And 00:23:51.480 --> 00:23:54.140 when bad things happen in the 1600s, people look 00:23:54.140 --> 00:23:57.240 for a sinner to blame. Exactly. The popular consensus 00:23:57.240 --> 00:23:59.859 was that God was angry at England for its sins, 00:24:00.079 --> 00:24:02.680 so Parliament introduced a bill against atheism 00:24:02.680 --> 00:24:05.519 and profaneness. The committee formed was specifically 00:24:05.519 --> 00:24:07.759 empowered to receive information about books 00:24:07.759 --> 00:24:11.519 that tended to atheism in particular. The book 00:24:11.519 --> 00:24:14.359 of Mr. Hobbes called The Leviathan. So they named 00:24:14.359 --> 00:24:17.220 him and his book in a parliamentary bill. That 00:24:17.220 --> 00:24:19.619 must have triggered his old friend fear. He was 00:24:19.619 --> 00:24:22.000 terrified, genuinely terrified. The penalty for 00:24:22.000 --> 00:24:24.119 heresy could still be public execution, burning 00:24:24.119 --> 00:24:26.200 at the stake. He actually burned some of his 00:24:26.200 --> 00:24:28.279 own papers, compromising manuscripts just to 00:24:28.279 --> 00:24:30.819 be safe. Wow. He wrote a defense arguing that 00:24:30.819 --> 00:24:32.779 there was no court in England that could legally 00:24:32.779 --> 00:24:35.299 try him for heresy anymore. But for a while, 00:24:35.319 --> 00:24:37.019 he was looking over his shoulder, thinking the 00:24:37.019 --> 00:24:39.059 authorities were coming for him. The bill didn't 00:24:39.059 --> 00:24:41.660 lead to his execution, but it did silence him, 00:24:41.680 --> 00:24:44.579 didn't it? It did. The king, his former pupil 00:24:44.579 --> 00:24:47.339 Charles II, protected him from any real harm. 00:24:47.700 --> 00:24:50.099 But part of the deal was that Hobbes was forbidden 00:24:50.099 --> 00:24:52.240 from publishing anything on politics or human 00:24:52.240 --> 00:24:55.079 conduct in England ever again. He had to print 00:24:55.079 --> 00:24:57.299 his later works in Amsterdam and have them smuggled 00:24:57.299 --> 00:24:59.559 into the country. So we have the political drama, 00:24:59.720 --> 00:25:02.339 but we also have to talk about the feuds. Because 00:25:02.339 --> 00:25:03.720 Hobbes seems to have been the kind of guy who 00:25:03.720 --> 00:25:05.900 just couldn't let an argument go. He was a fighter. 00:25:06.240 --> 00:25:09.599 He was incredibly stubborn, and he picked fights 00:25:09.599 --> 00:25:12.539 with real experts in their own fields. He had 00:25:12.539 --> 00:25:14.720 this intellectual arrogance where he believed 00:25:14.720 --> 00:25:17.759 his system, his geometric method, could explain 00:25:17.759 --> 00:25:20.000 everything better than the specialists. Let's 00:25:20.000 --> 00:25:22.420 start with Bishop Bramhall, the fight over free 00:25:22.420 --> 00:25:24.819 will. Right. This was the great philosophical 00:25:24.819 --> 00:25:28.420 battle. Bramhall was a bishop, a strong believer 00:25:28.420 --> 00:25:31.400 in traditional free will, the idea that humans 00:25:31.400 --> 00:25:33.640 have a soul that can freely choose between good 00:25:33.640 --> 00:25:36.569 and evil. Hobbes, true to his mechanistic view, 00:25:36.789 --> 00:25:40.009 was a strict determinist. Explain that. Psychological 00:25:40.009 --> 00:25:43.150 determinism. Right. He believed that our will 00:25:43.150 --> 00:25:45.829 is nothing more than the last appetite or aversion 00:25:45.829 --> 00:25:48.789 we feel before we act. It's the final link in 00:25:48.789 --> 00:25:51.529 a causal chain. If you choose an apple over a 00:25:51.529 --> 00:25:53.910 pear, it's not because of some magical free choice. 00:25:54.130 --> 00:25:56.690 It's because the physical chain of causes and 00:25:56.690 --> 00:25:59.250 effects in your brain, your hunger, your memories, 00:25:59.309 --> 00:26:01.670 your body chemistry, resulted in the appetite 00:26:01.670 --> 00:26:05.130 for the apple being stronger. So liberty for 00:26:05.130 --> 00:26:07.369 Hobbes just means you're not physically stopped 00:26:07.369 --> 00:26:09.750 from doing something. Exactly. Liberty is the 00:26:09.750 --> 00:26:13.130 absence of external impediments. A river is free 00:26:13.130 --> 00:26:15.569 to flow downhill. You are free to walk out a 00:26:15.569 --> 00:26:17.769 door if it isn't locked. It doesn't mean you 00:26:17.769 --> 00:26:19.970 could have chosen to desire something else. And 00:26:19.970 --> 00:26:22.529 this debate got messy. Very. It was supposed 00:26:22.529 --> 00:26:25.450 to be a private exchange of papers, but Bramhall's 00:26:25.450 --> 00:26:27.470 side published it without Hobbes' permission. 00:26:28.069 --> 00:26:30.730 This led to a public war of words that went on 00:26:30.730 --> 00:26:33.529 for years. Bramhall wrote a book with the amazing 00:26:33.529 --> 00:26:36.170 title The Catching of Leviathan the Great Whale. 00:26:36.250 --> 00:26:38.470 That's a great title. Hobbes replied with the 00:26:38.470 --> 00:26:40.670 questions concerning liberty, necessity, and 00:26:40.670 --> 00:26:43.250 chance, and the records say he replied with astonishing 00:26:43.250 --> 00:26:46.549 force. He did not hold back. But if the Bramhall 00:26:46.549 --> 00:26:49.089 feud was an intellectual heavyweight match... 00:26:49.339 --> 00:26:52.380 The feud with John Wallace was, well, it was 00:26:52.380 --> 00:26:54.559 almost a comedy routine. It is tragic comedy. 00:26:54.720 --> 00:26:57.740 It really is. John Wallace was a brilliant mathematician, 00:26:58.019 --> 00:27:01.140 a civilian professor of geometry at Oxford. He 00:27:01.140 --> 00:27:02.779 was one of the founders of the Royal Society, 00:27:03.099 --> 00:27:07.079 a legitimate genius. And Hobbes dabbled in math. 00:27:07.240 --> 00:27:09.480 Dabbled is the right word. And Hobbes became 00:27:09.480 --> 00:27:11.500 convinced that he had solved one of the great 00:27:11.500 --> 00:27:15.029 impossible problems of ancient geometry. Squaring 00:27:15.029 --> 00:27:17.089 the circle. Explain what that is for the listener 00:27:17.089 --> 00:27:19.250 who hasn't touched a protractor in 20 years. 00:27:19.509 --> 00:27:22.029 It's the challenge to construct a square with 00:27:22.029 --> 00:27:24.910 the exact same area as a given circle, using 00:27:24.910 --> 00:27:27.769 only a compass and a straight edge. For reasons 00:27:27.769 --> 00:27:30.470 related to the transcendental nature of pi, we 00:27:30.470 --> 00:27:32.509 now know it's mathematically impossible. But 00:27:32.509 --> 00:27:34.630 Hobbes didn't know that. No, and in his book 00:27:34.630 --> 00:27:37.670 De Corpor in 1655, he published his solution. 00:27:37.970 --> 00:27:40.450 He thought he had cracked a 2 ,000 -year -old 00:27:40.450 --> 00:27:43.009 code. And what did Wallace, the actual mathematician, 00:27:43.410 --> 00:27:47.470 think? Wallace tore him to shreds. He publicly 00:27:47.470 --> 00:27:50.210 and brutally exposed Hobbes' many mathematical 00:27:50.210 --> 00:27:53.950 errors. A normal person, a humble person, would 00:27:53.950 --> 00:27:56.470 have said, oops, my bad, I'm a political philosopher, 00:27:56.710 --> 00:27:59.329 not a geometer, I'll stick to my lane. But not 00:27:59.329 --> 00:28:03.049 Hobbes. Never Hobbes. He doubled down. He refused 00:28:03.049 --> 00:28:05.890 to admit his mistake. He fought with John Wallace 00:28:05.890 --> 00:28:09.109 in public print for 25 years. 25 years. Over 00:28:09.109 --> 00:28:11.769 a math problem he got wrong. A quarter of a century 00:28:11.769 --> 00:28:14.470 of arguing about geometry. He wrote pamphlet 00:28:14.470 --> 00:28:17.269 after pamphlet attacking Wallace's absurd geometry 00:28:17.269 --> 00:28:20.589 and even criticized his rural language, basically 00:28:20.589 --> 00:28:22.589 making fun of his grammar. He criticized his 00:28:22.589 --> 00:28:24.609 grammar in a math debate. He criticized everything. 00:28:25.049 --> 00:28:28.029 He called Wallace's work a scab of symbols. It 00:28:28.029 --> 00:28:30.970 was a flame war, 17th century style played out 00:28:30.970 --> 00:28:33.670 in Latin. And Hobbes refused to admit he was 00:28:33.670 --> 00:28:35.970 wrong until the day he died. What does that tell 00:28:35.970 --> 00:28:38.420 us about him? Is it just monumental ego? It is 00:28:38.420 --> 00:28:41.359 ego, certainly. He had a massive ego. But I think 00:28:41.359 --> 00:28:43.720 it's also something deeper. It's his commitment 00:28:43.720 --> 00:28:46.420 to his system. He wanted everything to fit into 00:28:46.420 --> 00:28:50.359 his logical, geometric worldview. If his geometry 00:28:50.359 --> 00:28:53.559 was proven to be flawed, he feared it might imply 00:28:53.559 --> 00:28:55.980 his politics were flawed, too. He needed the 00:28:55.980 --> 00:28:58.180 world to be logical and solvable. And admitting 00:28:58.180 --> 00:29:00.819 error was like pulling a thread that could unravel 00:29:00.819 --> 00:29:03.720 the whole tapestry. He needed certainty in a 00:29:03.720 --> 00:29:06.220 chaotic world, even if he had to invent it himself. 00:29:07.000 --> 00:29:09.180 So despite the stress of being England's most 00:29:09.180 --> 00:29:11.299 notorious philosopher and fighting with math 00:29:11.299 --> 00:29:13.920 professors, the man had incredible longevity. 00:29:14.319 --> 00:29:16.920 He really did. He lived to be 91 years old in 00:29:16.920 --> 00:29:19.000 the 17th century. That is extraordinary. And 00:29:19.000 --> 00:29:20.960 he had a protector in high places until the end. 00:29:21.059 --> 00:29:24.859 King Charles II, his former student. The king 00:29:24.859 --> 00:29:26.880 couldn't let him publish his controversial works, 00:29:26.960 --> 00:29:28.619 but he seemed to have a genuine affection for 00:29:28.619 --> 00:29:31.420 his old tutor. The king famously called Hobbes 00:29:31.420 --> 00:29:33.720 the bear because he was always being baited into 00:29:33.720 --> 00:29:35.779 fights by his enemies. They liked him. He liked 00:29:35.779 --> 00:29:38.119 him. He gave Hobbes a pension of 100 pounds a 00:29:38.119 --> 00:29:40.079 year and kept his portrait in his private closet 00:29:40.079 --> 00:29:43.019 at court. That royal favor probably kept him 00:29:43.019 --> 00:29:45.420 from any real harm. He spent his final years 00:29:45.420 --> 00:29:48.180 with the Cavendish family at their estates, mostly 00:29:48.180 --> 00:29:51.200 at Chatsworth House. And he kept working right 00:29:51.200 --> 00:29:54.119 to the end. He couldn't stop. It's astounding. 00:29:54.460 --> 00:29:57.859 At age 84, he wrote his autobiography in Latin 00:29:57.859 --> 00:30:00.980 verse. Just showing off. Completely. And then, 00:30:00.980 --> 00:30:02.579 because he said he had nothing else to do in 00:30:02.579 --> 00:30:05.380 his late 80s, he decided to translate both the 00:30:05.380 --> 00:30:08.500 Iliad and the Odyssey into English verse. The 00:30:08.500 --> 00:30:12.329 entire Homeric epics. In his late 80s. Yes. The 00:30:12.329 --> 00:30:14.670 notes here call them rugged rhymes. They aren't 00:30:14.670 --> 00:30:16.369 considered the greatest translations, but the 00:30:16.369 --> 00:30:18.369 fact that he did it at all is just staggering. 00:30:18.529 --> 00:30:20.569 It shows his mind was sharp and active until 00:30:20.569 --> 00:30:23.529 the very end. And then the end comes. Yeah. October 00:30:23.529 --> 00:30:27.289 1679. You had a bladder disorder and then a paralytic 00:30:27.289 --> 00:30:29.950 stroke. He died at Hardwick Hall, another Cavendish 00:30:29.950 --> 00:30:33.730 estate, on December 4, 1679. And his final words 00:30:33.730 --> 00:30:36.049 were recorded by those around him. A great leap 00:30:36.049 --> 00:30:38.720 in the dark. It's poignant, isn't it? For a man 00:30:38.720 --> 00:30:41.019 who spent 91 years trying to construct a system 00:30:41.019 --> 00:30:43.440 of absolute certainty, trying to banish fear 00:30:43.440 --> 00:30:46.619 with inescapable logic, his final moment is facing 00:30:46.619 --> 00:30:49.779 the ultimate unknown. A great leap in the dark. 00:30:49.960 --> 00:30:52.720 So let's zoom out. We unpack the life, the book, 00:30:52.900 --> 00:30:55.400 the feuds. What is the legacy? Why does this 00:30:55.400 --> 00:30:58.559 matter to you, the listener today? We don't live 00:30:58.559 --> 00:31:01.319 in an absolute monarchy. Most of us live in democracies. 00:31:01.319 --> 00:31:04.599 We have rights. Is Hobbes just a historical relic? 00:31:04.640 --> 00:31:06.779 Not at all. I think he's more relevant than ever. 00:31:06.920 --> 00:31:08.460 The historian Christopher Hill put it really 00:31:08.460 --> 00:31:11.500 well. He said Hobbes fundamentally shifted political 00:31:11.500 --> 00:31:14.119 thought from obey the state because God says 00:31:14.119 --> 00:31:16.519 so to obey the state because it's convenient 00:31:16.519 --> 00:31:19.380 and safer than the alternative. He secularized 00:31:19.380 --> 00:31:22.299 politics. He invented the modern state in a way. 00:31:22.359 --> 00:31:25.059 The idea that government is a tool we create 00:31:25.059 --> 00:31:27.619 for our own benefit, for our own security. Exactly. 00:31:27.819 --> 00:31:30.539 He is the progenitor of what we call social structure. 00:31:32.200 --> 00:31:35.000 the really hard, uncomfortable question, why 00:31:35.000 --> 00:31:37.900 do you follow the law? Is it because you are 00:31:37.900 --> 00:31:40.279 a naturally good person with a strong moral compass? 00:31:40.480 --> 00:31:43.519 Or is it because you are terrified of what happens 00:31:43.519 --> 00:31:45.440 when the law breaks down? It's the question that 00:31:45.440 --> 00:31:47.599 comes up every time there's a blackout, a riot, 00:31:47.680 --> 00:31:50.240 a natural disaster, a collapse of order. How 00:31:50.240 --> 00:31:53.200 thin is the veneer of civilization? Hobbes says 00:31:53.200 --> 00:31:55.759 it's paper thin. And that is why he is still 00:31:55.759 --> 00:31:58.019 so unsettling. We like to think of ourselves 00:31:58.019 --> 00:32:02.019 as evolved, moral, cooperative creatures. Hobbes 00:32:02.019 --> 00:32:04.240 holds up a mirror and sees a scared, selfish 00:32:04.240 --> 00:32:07.779 animal that needs a cage to feel safe. He challenges 00:32:07.779 --> 00:32:09.960 us to accept that the state doesn't exist to 00:32:09.960 --> 00:32:12.660 make us happy or virtuous or to help us achieve 00:32:12.660 --> 00:32:16.420 our dreams. Its primary, and maybe only, function 00:32:16.420 --> 00:32:19.190 is to keep us alive. to stop us from killing 00:32:19.190 --> 00:32:21.369 each other. And if you look at the world today, 00:32:21.470 --> 00:32:25.210 at failed states, at civil wars, at the fragility 00:32:25.210 --> 00:32:27.829 of order in so many places, Hobbes is always 00:32:27.829 --> 00:32:29.789 there in the background whispering, I told you 00:32:29.789 --> 00:32:32.609 so. So here is the final provocative thought 00:32:32.609 --> 00:32:34.690 for you to mull over as you go about your day. 00:32:35.000 --> 00:32:37.440 Next time you are standing in line at the DMV 00:32:37.440 --> 00:32:39.660 or paying your taxes or grumbling about some 00:32:39.660 --> 00:32:42.779 bureaucratic rule you have to follow, imagine 00:32:42.779 --> 00:32:45.339 the alternative. Imagine the twins. Imagine the 00:32:45.339 --> 00:32:48.039 fear. Imagine the nasty, brutish, and short life 00:32:48.039 --> 00:32:51.400 that Thomas Hobbes ran from for 91 years. And 00:32:51.400 --> 00:32:55.039 ask yourself, maybe, just maybe, the Leviathan 00:32:55.039 --> 00:32:57.700 isn't the monster. Maybe the monster is us. That 00:32:57.700 --> 00:32:59.940 is the deep dive. Thanks for listening. We'll 00:32:59.940 --> 00:33:00.500 see you next time.