Logo: to the web site of Uppsala University

uu.sePublications from Uppsala University
Change search
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf
God and the moral beings: A contextual study of Thomas Hobbes’s third book in Leviathan
Uppsala University, Disciplinary Domain of Humanities and Social Sciences, Faculty of Arts, Department of History of Science and Ideas.
2007 (English)Independent thesis Basic level (degree of Bachelor)Student thesis
Abstract [en]

The question this essay sets out to answer is what role God plays in Thomas Hobbes’s Leviathan, in the book “Of a Christian Common-wealth”, in relationship to humans as moral beings. The question is relevant as the religious aspects of Hobbes’s thinking cannot be ignored, although Hobbes most likely had rather secular and sceptical philosophical views. In order to answer the research question Leviathan’s “Of a Christian Common-wealth” will be compared and contrasted with two contextual works: the canonical theological document of the Anglican Church, the Thirty-Nine Articles (1571), and Presbyterian-Anglican document the Westminster Confession (1648). Also, recent scholarly works on Hobbes and more general reference works will be employed and discussed. Hobbes’s views provide a seemingly unsolvable paradox. On the one hand, God is either portrayed, or becomes by consequence of his sceptical and secular state thinking, a distant God in relationship to moral humans in “Of a Christian Common-wealth”. Also, the freedom humans seem to have in making their own moral decisions, whether based on natural and divine, or positive laws, appears to obscure God’s almightiness. On the other hand, when placing Hobbes in context, Hobbes appears to have espoused Calvinist views, with beliefs in predestination and that God is the cause of everything. Rather paradoxically it not unlikely that Hobbes espoused both the views that appear to obscure the role of God, and his more Calvinistic views.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2007. , p. 50
Keywords [en]
God, Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679), human morality, predestination, free will, theology, “Of a Christian Common-wealth”.
National Category
History of Ideas
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-113789OAI: oai:DiVA.org:uu-113789DiVA, id: diva2:291941
Presentation
(English)
Uppsok
Humanities, Theology
Available from: 2010-08-20 Created: 2010-02-04 Last updated: 2010-08-20Bibliographically approved

Open Access in DiVA

fulltext(292 kB)3371 downloads
File information
File name FULLTEXT01.pdfFile size 292 kBChecksum SHA-512
8c8b6121322a2c5a3330179e39dc9959c949b314c2be0d64ff5f4d366f2ec9d31df2026d99866f92844bbfd56d6683a8938650b6de46adcb45359b50d6e94cd8
Type fulltextMimetype application/pdf

By organisation
Department of History of Science and Ideas
History of Ideas

Search outside of DiVA

GoogleGoogle Scholar
Total: 3371 downloads
The number of downloads is the sum of all downloads of full texts. It may include eg previous versions that are now no longer available

urn-nbn

Altmetric score

urn-nbn
Total: 1245 hits
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf