The Posthumous Career of Thomas Hobbes

Extract

Hobbes did not believe in ghosts. The old sceptic pointed out that ghosts always appear fully clothed—and the idea of the resurrection of a dead man's old clothes is really preposterous. But the ghost of Hobbes himself has haunted Europe for the last three centuries. Dr. Richard Peters, whose cool and pithy survey of the main compartments of Hobbes's thought was published last year,* obviously feels a wry affection for this tough old ghost where others have felt alarm and horror. The posthumous career of Thomas Hobbes at the hands of his enemies, critics, and commentators reveals a good deal about him and still more about them. Hobbes's system is like a big irregular diamond each of whose facets has brilliantly reflected the changing light focused on it. To examine the changing reception of Hobbes's ideas is one way—an eccentric but, I think, an enjoyable way—of looking at the larger changes in the intellectual climate of Europe during the last three centuries.