Human Nature, De Corpore Politico (The Elements of Law) and Of Liberty and Necessity
- Language:
- English
- Status:
- Complete work
- Authorship:
- Written by the author
- Condition of the text:
- Clean text
- Extent:
- ~160,000 words · 744 passages
Cite this work
- APAThomas Hobbes. (n.d.). Human Nature, De Corpore Politico (The Elements of Law) and Of Liberty and Necessity. SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/thomas-hobbes/human-nature-de-corpore-politico-the-elements-of-law-and-of-liberty-and-necessity
- MLAThomas Hobbes. "Human Nature, De Corpore Politico (The Elements of Law) and Of Liberty and Necessity." SigPhi, https://sigphiai.com/en/works/thomas-hobbes/human-nature-de-corpore-politico-the-elements-of-law-and-of-liberty-and-necessity.
- ChicagoThomas Hobbes. Human Nature, De Corpore Politico (The Elements of Law) and Of Liberty and Necessity. SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/thomas-hobbes/human-nature-de-corpore-politico-the-elements-of-law-and-of-liberty-and-necessity.
What it is about
The writings in which Hobbes set out his politics for the first time, ten years before 'Leviathan', together with his debate on free will with Bishop Bramhall.
Context and history
'Human Nature' and 'De corpore politico' are the two halves of the 'Elements of Law', which Hobbes circulated in manuscript in 1640 and which were printed without his leave in 1650. The whole structure is already there: the mechanical psychology of the passions, the state of nature as a war of all against all, and the covenant that creates an indivisible authority. It is shorter and barer than 'Leviathan', and for that reason a good way in. 'Of Liberty and Necessity' is another matter: his defence of the compatibility of human freedom with determinism — a man is free who does what he wills, even if what he wills is caused — which is the formulation that has lasted through the whole later discussion.
Editorial context, not a citable source: unlike the passages of the work itself, these statements cannot be checked against the corpus.
------------------------------------------------------------------------This version of the text cannot represent certain typographical effects. The many instances of italic text are delimited with the ‘_’ character as _italic_. Title page use of blackletter text uses the ‘=’ as a delimiter. Marginal sidenotes which spanned multiple pages were often repeated on each page. These have been removed. Minor errors, attributable to the printer, have been corrected. Please see the transcriber’s note at the end of this text for details regarding the handling of any textual issues encountered during its preparation. THE ENGLISH WORKS OF THOMAS HOBBES. ------------------------------------------------------------------------THE ENGLISH WORKS OF THOMAS HOBBES OF MALMESBURY; NOW FIRST COLLECTED AND EDITED BY SIR WILLIAM MOLESWORTH, BART. --- VOL. IV. --- LONDON: JOHN BOHN, HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN. --- MDCCCXL. LONDON: C. RICHARDS, PRINTER, ST. MARTIN'S LANE. CONTENTS OF VOL. IV. ------- PAGE TRIPOS; in Three Discourses: I. Human Nature, or the Fundamental Elements of Policy 1 II. De Corpore Politico, or the Elements of Law 77 III. Of Liberty and Necessity