Hobbes's View Of Freedom And Inevitability

Hobbes,as an important representative of British political philosophy in the seventeenth Century,he has made a profound analysis of the category of freedom and necessity.Hobbes's exposition of the concept of freedom and necessity is no longer confined to their relations narrowly.They are applied to the political practice of the analysis of human nature,the formation of social contract and the creation of the state which provides a unique perspective to explore the origin of modern countries and the development of Western civilization.Hobbes's concept of freedom and liberty has its profound theoretical origin.The Renaissance and religious reform provide the budding seeds for Hobbes's liberalism.The rapid development of natural science breaks through the barriers of theology,which provides the theoretical preparation for the development of the concept of necessity.Natural law and social contract theory lay the theoretical foundation for Hobbes's theory of freedom and the theory of causality is helpful for us to understand the necessity of Hobbes.Hobbes,as a famous materialist philosopher in the history of modern western philosophy,on one hand,he attributes the movement and changes of all the objects to necessity.According to the causal link of the objects,the necessity of natural movement can be known and fundamentally denying the existence of chance.Chance is nothing more than ignorance of the cause of things:on the other hand,he stresses the "absolute freedom" of man and his choices.Not only do people have the "inherent freedom" in natural state,but also they have the freedom under the law in the national state.Hobbes thinks that liberty and necessity are inherent consistency and applies them to the national construction.Firstly,the connotation of Hobbes' view of liberty is analyzed from three aspects:the movement of nature,the will and the deliberation in this paper and the freedom in natural state and the freedom in national state of Hobbes' are further probed into from the perspectives of natural rights.natural law.human nature theory and social contract theory.Then the relationship between inner passion out of fear and deliberation and freedom is analyzed:secondly.the necessity caused by sufficient reason is analyzed which is equivalent to the causal determinism and the relationship with the chance is explored.Then Hobbes' liberty and necessity are analyzed from the three perspectives of the mechanical materialism.the mechanical determinism and social contract theory and borrowing Almighty God to achieve the inner consistency of freedom and necessity.Finally,the practical significance of Hobbes' liberty and necessity are analyzed and its influence on later philosophers.