Atefe Golfeshan; Mahmood Vasegh
Abstract
1. Introduction
According to many experts, a new approach to the concept of power in the context of modern thought begins with the views of Thomas Hobbes. In a common thought, Hobbes is known as the original designer of modern political thought in the field of power, because before his works, a few ...
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1. Introduction
According to many experts, a new approach to the concept of power in the context of modern thought begins with the views of Thomas Hobbes. In a common thought, Hobbes is known as the original designer of modern political thought in the field of power, because before his works, a few writing in the technical areas of philosophy –in areas of epistemology, ontology, physics and ethics -were written. He designed "political science" literally by using the modern scientific methodology, and with putting center of the "power" in the realm of politics, he deal with this question that how can influence in the power’s matter and know that? Unlike previous philosophers, his concern wasn't about how the power should be. One of the reasons that caused the attention of scholars and political geographers to his works is the concept of power. The word of power is important in geopolitics and actually the geopolitics is called the science of power. Hobbes in his theory paid attention to this word and with his vision and ideas tried to introduce this concept and how it functions. It might be our era’s crisis that causes our closeness to Hobbes’. This closeness is due to Common points that is placed between our needs and Hobbes’ knowledge. We need to understand the phenomena of our environment and our understanding of what is experimental and non- experimental; we are inevitably drawn towards Hobbes . We also want to possess instruments of power and influence for stable security. His look is very important to political geography and geopolitics, because of his works about power.With this introduction, in this paper we paid to review of the philosophical foundations of Hobbes's thought and its impact on geopolitics.
2. Methodology
In this study, we have tried to review and explain the philosophical thought of Thomas Hobbes. His thoughts influence on topics of political geography. We have used from works of Hobbes to collect information about the effects of his philosophical opinions on the thoughts and topics of political geography. For the analysis of data we have also used analytic – descriptive method.
3. Results & Discussion
Hobbes can beregarded as the first thinker who tried to bring politics in to ascience. He used experimental method in this regard .He took a mathematical and empirical approach to analysis ,human and social trends and policies which isn’t considered part of the natural sciences.
He implemented the empirical principles for politics. Hobbes unlike Aristotle and scholastic thinkers didn’t have a divine look to the government and people issues. He had a totally realistic and mechanical view on this matter. He believed in the equality of human beings. Passions and desires, they will do any thing to achieve, including eliminating the other people. In his view, achieving power is in the nature of all human beings for two purposes. The fear of losing assets by force or to gain more power. In other word, power is one of human’s desires for earning more power that enables him to stop others to take it away from him.
In fact , Hobbes had a pessimistic look tow a rdshumans, but some of them were the result of his time crisis which has already been discussed .In spite of his pessimistic view of human nature, he had a kind of rationalist view of man and his environment influenced by intellectual developments occurred during sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Also, he believes that wisdom leads human to get rid of his natural state. From Hobbs’ perspective, the fear of death is driving force of wisdom which pushes human to create rules to have security and peace. Hobbes had scientific look to the existence of policy and related to pics such as, power, government, people and land which are the basic principles of the geopolitics .He considered these topics as the real issues and took them into account of science. Hobbes's categorized this knowledge as normative knowledge. Therefore, he used the scientific method to explain and review. To portray the man, power, society and the best form of government he used the Galileo’s methodology .According to Galileo, the complicated movements come from simple move ments’ interaction which are invisible but mainly responsible for the movement. Hobbes divided society and politics in to the small estparts then combined them after Simplifying. This method is used to understand phenomena.
Hobbes sees no difference between the methods of the natural sciences and the social sciences .His political philosophy is the sequence of natural philosophy . In this way, Hobbes’ method was more a positivistic approach and based on the observation. Although, one can say that in the field of analysis, it is also used from the
hypothetical deductive method (descriptive analysis).Hobbes used more of causal explanation to review and explain issues. He began explaining how human and human moralities are causes of formation of the government. In other words, from writer’s perspective, I think he knew the necessity of absolutism on effect of bad human nature and fear of each other and their need for peace and security. From the other view, his description was ultimate since there is always a causal explanation followed by an ultimate explanation. Hobbes ‘ultimate go al of forming a totalitarian government was to achieve peace and security for the people and avoid war, particularly the Civil War.
Hobbes in his Leviathan established his society based on respect for the individual and anthropocentric, concerned with the welfare of the community to know that every person has freedom of choice to choose their way of life. But on the other hand, Hobbes believed in a government that has full authority and thus can be taken all the liberties of the individual away from him. Hobbes had a holistic approach to see society and government and looked at the entire population of the metropolitan, but in the debate of man, he spoke of respect for the person and had minim al look to analyze phenomena such as war, and detected the basic principles of war.
Finally, he were more attributed to partial view due to his interest in the Galileo method (combine - analysis), and tried to found some principles for social pheno menaasempiricalp he no men a with breakdown of society and mankind to their smallest element. Then, after finding these principles, head a pted them to the whole community by using the logical reasoning. At this time, he saw the man and society as macro principles and gave so cial law to the who le community.
4. Conclusion
A society that Hobbes portrays and finally, he prescribes and recommends it to achieve human happiness is from his view of man and society of that day. Some of the gaps Hobbes created in ontological and epistemological foundations of political theory than classical political philosophy provide appropriate themes for the growth and formation of political philosophy of many scholars after him. Although, some believe that human society and social phenomena can’t be studied with scientific method like empirical phenomena, and stated principles and specific rules for them, because in contrast to empirical phenomena these phenomena are constantly changing; but, Hobbes could explain policy and society scientifically by using the scientific method and realistic and mechanical approach for the first time.
Though some of his words are doubtful and there are some dualities in, his philosophical thought and methodology had impact on so many thinkers after Hobbes and guided the m to the pursuit of science and policy issues related to power and security. Hobbes is mostly called as one of the defenders of authoritarianism and absolute state, and for his tendency to monopolize and centralize power and special priority that he gives to social order he is considered as a conservative. Although some of his principles are the same liberal principles.
This article will examine why Thomas Hobbes’ philosophical ideas are important, and his explicit and implicit references is to geopolitical issues like state, country, territory, population, management and political organization of space, national security, national management and political patterns and the optimal rate of population, territory and jurisdiction and the subjects of this that during the present paper an attempt has been made to be addressed to investigation and explanation of the foundations and roots of these issues in the philosophical ideas of Thomas Hobbes , and there by impact on philosophical thought on political geographers, particularly among followers of determinism, such as Mackinder and Ratzl and also geographers who follow systematical and spatial attitudes and show to the fans of positivistic approach.
