Study On Hobbes' Political Ethics Thought

In the history of the Western ethical thought,Socrates was considered as the first person who pulled the study of philosophy "from the sky to the ground".He regarded the pursuits of goodness and the realization of justice as the ultimate goal for the country.From then on,the political ethics was presented clearly,inherited and developed by some later philosophers.Until the 17th century,deeply inspired by the political realities,Hobbes firmly believed that political planning according to man's low but practical goal is more possible to realize than the classical theory of Utopia,which make him run out of the fog of Medieval theocracy politics.He firstly put individual above the state,which reversed the state-based political ethics,thus rethought the problem of legitimacy and legality.He established a logical system of political ethics based on the principle of human nature and natural law,the theory of contract as an intermediary,with rigorous scientific spirit.In this system,the individual is the basis of the country.The state's legitimacy and the legality depend not on the goodness of the state but on the condition that whether the government could assure the rights of individual or not,which is regarded as the criterion for judging the nature of the state and the government,as well as individual acts.In the history of political ethics,Hobbes's thought is a turning point and "modern version" of the western political ethics,which had a far-reaching and profound impact on later generation.