ABSTRACT
Thomas Hobbes was responding to an ongoing series of civil wars that were nominally wars of religion. Like those other theorists, Hobbes did indeed make people aware of some important psychological facts Hobbes has left us with a fascinating dilemma. Politically, his description of humans as wholly self-interested beings, only linked by a social contract, has been most helpful. It has shaped the idea of freedom that lies behind modern individualism. Here, as we have seen, Hobbes deliberately uses brutal language as part of his campaign to break through humbug by horrifying people. Another difficulty is that Hobbes leaves it rather uncertain what people should do when they are not sure what course will actually best preserve them. That is why Romantic literature is full of stories of young people struggling, often successfully, to escape from the prisons built by their uncomprehending parents and parent figures.
