My name is Thomas Hobbes and I was born on the Fifth of April 1588 in Wiltshire, England. I went to Oxford College however I found myself studying what I wanted too rather than the curriculum which was I was assigned. As a result of this it took me longer then my peers to get my B.A. which I finally got in 1608. After college I continued increasing my knowledge in physics and other sciences even serving Sir Francis Bacon. One of the most influential events of my life was the English civil war which made me realize men were all naturally selfish, and inspired me to write my work Leviathan. This book was my first major publication of philosophy and brought me into the public's eye.



In Leviathan I expressed my opinions that without a strong central government we would be in a state of nature. In a state of nature we are always at war with one another as we would do what is best for us and by doing so quarrel with are fellow men. To stop this from happing we as people have implicit a social contract with the sovereign, who by doing what ever possible to defend the people, the people themselves rights are transferred to him and are all required to defend the commonwealth. Governments need to be strong and centralized and rule to make sure that the people to not revert to their natural state. In this way the people help the ruler in defending his kingdom and the ruler helps the people by keeping them away from their natural state. In this system of ruling way both the ruler and his subjects both benefit from each other.



As for religion there is no evidence of it, as it only is in man. However the sovereign of a state is the best to interpret religion. This is because religion is just a set of laws for men to practice and is not in itself to be completely true. We cannot know gods will because we do not know any attributes of god himself and we cannot learn of his wills as he is not a god of reason. Religion in itself is just another set of laws to stop us from reverting back to natural state of nature.



To conclude I feel my philosophies would lead to progress with the human race. We must accept our natural greed and live with a strong sovereign to help our society improve. We must learn to use these ideals to our advantage and we will improve more than we have already.