ABSTRACT
Thomas Hobbes was born at Malmesbury, in Wiltshire, on 5 April 1588. His mother gave birth to him prematurely owing to her fright at the news of the approach of the Spanish Armada. In an autobiography which he wrote in Latin verse, Hobbes says that his mother gave birth to twins, himself and fear. I mention this because there is a tradition that Hobbes was a timid man, but I am not sure that it is a reliable tradition. Hobbes showed considerable courage in publishing ideas that he knew would provoke hostility among powerful ecclesiastics and politicians. I think the tradition is founded on the following things: some of Hobbes's own remarks, such as the one I have quoted; the fact that in his philosophy he lays great stress on fear (especially the fear of death) as a motive of human behaviour; and the fact that in his old age he did not like to be left alone. Of these supposed pieces of evidence, the second, Hobbes's stress on fear as a motive, is the one most relevant to a study of his thought. Hobbes's account of human psychology has been strongly criticized; and some people have thought that he must have been describing himself and supposing that his own character was typical of mankind, when in fact it was not, because he himself was unusually timid. Now it is true that Hobbes generalizes from his own experience, and tells us at the end of the Introduction to his greatest work, Leviathan, that generalizations about mankind must be 'read' in oneself. Yet I doubt if Hobbes was any more subject to fear than the rest of us. Initially his psychology was an egoistic one, and this is open to criticism, as Hobbes himself must have realized because he modified it in his later work; but while one may criticize the egoism of Hobbes's Human Nature, it seems to me that his emphasis, in his political writings, on fear as a human motive is realistic, and that those who belittle the influence of this motive are deceiving themselves. Hobbes's account of human motives is directed towards political philosophy, and in the sphere of politics high-minded motives do not playa very large part.
