The Study Of Hobbes' Liberal Thought

Thomas Hobbes was a famous philosopher,politician and sociologist in modern Britain,and the founder of the British rationalism tradition.He was the first bourgeois enlightenment thinker in modern western history who put forward the systematic development of the theory of state contract on the basis of natural rights.Some of his ideas have been inherited and further developed by many later thinkers.In the western academic circles,Hobbes is generally regarded as the forerunner of modern liberalism.As oakeshott said;"Even though Hobbes himself was not a liberal,his philosophy was more liberal than most of the overt advocates of liberalism."According to oakeshott's analysis,Hobbes' political philosophy is based on two main themes: will and creation.The individual is the will,and this will is absolute,neither conditioned nor conditioned by any standard,rule,or reason.It is also not determined by any plan or goal,and Hobbes calls this state of absence of any obligation a "natural right." In contrast to the absoluteness of the individual will,human society is the creation of man and the result of his absolute freedom of will,just as nature is the result of god's absolute freedom of will.This paper will try to restore Hobbes' understanding of freedom through four aspects.In the first part of the article,this paper will briefly discuss the background of The Times in which Hobbes' thought of freedom came into being,aiming at clarifying the influence of external objective factors on Hobbes' understanding of freedom.On this basis,this paper will find out the main theoretical source of Hobbes' freedom thought,or in his ideological system,which parts can play a positive role in our more comprehensive understanding of Hobbes' interpretation of "freedom".This is mainly reflected in Hobbes' relevant works on natural law and social contract theory,such as on the citizen and leviathan.By analyzing and summarizing again the description of "freedom" in Hobbes' relevant works,the definition of "freedom" of Hobbes and his understanding of freedom and law,freedom and obligation can be fully demonstrated as far as possible.For Hobbes,the purpose of liberty is ultimately peace.How is freedom achieved?And what is the subject of liberty? This will be the focus of the third part,Hobbes thinks that the subject of freedom is the citizen,but the way to achieve freedom is through the establishment of the state.In the last part of this paper,I will briefly explain the influence of Hobbes' interpretation of "freedom" on Rousseau and Locke,and analyze the influence of Hobbes on the development of liberalism in the future from the macro and micro perspectives.The last part will discuss the limitation of Hobbes' free thought and the two misunderstandings in the academic circle,in order to treat objectively and fairly the influence of Hobbes' free thought in the history.In this paper,in the process of study of free thought Hobbes mainly USES literature research method,the method of historical research and historical materialism and dialectical materialism as a guide,a reduction of free thought Hobbes clearly most early,the liberal ideas in the historical status and influence of objective evaluation and summary is given.