Thomas Hobbes

            
             There were great philosophers such as Descartes, Spinoza, Locke, and Thomas Hobbes, who influenced their own time. Thomas Hobbes is, arguably, the greatest of all, on account of his coherent analysis, his energy and vividness with which he expressed his views, detailed development of argument and his simple conclusions which are impossible to ignore. In 20th Century, Hobbes's ideas have been paid more sustained and critical attention than preceding centuries. His opinions have been argued since they were formed and they will be criticized, supported and taught in the future, as well. Yet, who is actually Thomas Hobbes, what views did he defend and how did his views occur?.
             To begin with, Thomas Hobbes was born in 1588. He commenced to write about politics in the 1640s, while the conflict was developing between the king and the parliament that resulted in the English civil war. In 1640, when the king's supporters began to lose, as he was in favor of absolutism, he had to go to France with many royalists. For a time, he was the teacher of the Prince of Wales, later Charles II. He associated with French philosophers, Mersenne, Gassendi, Descartes and others. He conducted a controversy with Bishop Bramhall, another Royalist refugee, on the subject of free will, in which Hobbes claimed that choice is always determined by motives. He was interested in the whole range of philosophical and scientific ideas of the time, but especially in political philosophy. When he was in Paris, he published De Cive, his first major study on politics, and wrote Leviathan, published in 1651. In 1652 Hobbes returned to England and made peace with the government of Thomas Cromwell. In the 1660, the monarchy in England was restored, which caused Hobbes to be embarrassed, since he had made his peace with Cromwell. In the later part of his life, and after his death, Hobbes was constantly accused by Church of England writers of atheism; nevertheless, he was not an atheist but a materialist.