Thomas Hobbes Timeline

The outcome of Hobbes's careful study of classical Greek and Latin authors was, in 1628, his edition of Thucydides's History of the Peloponnesian War, the first English translation made directly from a Greek manuscript. He professed deep admiration for Thucydides as 'the most politic historiographer that ever writ.'

Image source: History of the Peloponnesian War

By the end of the Short Parliament in 1640, Hobbes had written a short treatise called The Elements of Law, Natural and Politic, which circulated in handwritten copies without his permission.

In Paris, Hobbes rejoined Mersenne's coterie and wrote a critique of Descartes's Meditations on First Philosophy, printed as third among the sets of 'Objections' appended, with 'Replies' from Descartes, in 1641.

Image source: Meditations on First Philosophy

Hobbes finished the third section of his philosophical system, De Cive, in November 1641. It formed part of the trilogy that would also include De Corpore and De Homine.

Image source: De Cive

The English Civil War began in 1642, lasting until 1651 between Parliamentarians and Royalists. After returning to England from France in 1637, Hobbes witnessed its destruction and brutality, which heavily influenced his advocacy for governance by an absolute sovereign in Leviathan.

Image source: English Civil War

Hobbes published little except a short treatise on optics (Tractatus opticus), included in the collection of scientific tracts published by Mersenne as Cogitata physico-mathematica in 1644.

Image source: Thomas Hobbes

Printing of De Cive began in 1646 by Samuel de Sorbiere through the Elsevier press in Amsterdam, with a new preface and some new notes replying to objections.

In 1650, a pirated edition of The Elements of Law, Natural and Politic was published, having initially been circulated only in handwritten copies without Hobbes's permission.

Image source: Thomas Hobbes

In 1651, the translation of De Cive was published under the title Philosophical Rudiments concerning Government and Society.

Leviathan, or the Matter, Forme, and Power of a Common Wealth, Ecclesiastical and Civil finally appeared in mid-1651. In it Hobbes expounded an influential formulation of social contract theory, arguing for an absolute sovereign as the solution to human conflict and societal breakdown.

Image source: Leviathan (Hobbes book)

From 1655, the publishing date of De Corpore, Hobbes and John Wallis continued name-calling and bickering for nearly a quarter of a century, with Hobbes failing to admit his error to the end of his life.

In 1658, Hobbes published De Homine, the final section of his philosophical system, completing the scheme he had planned more than 19 years before.

The results of Hobbes's investigation were first announced in three short Dialogues added as an Appendix to his Latin translation of Leviathan, published in Amsterdam in 1668. The edition was printed abroad because he could not obtain the censor's licence in England.

Other writings were not made public until after Hobbes's death, including Behemoth: the History of the Causes of the Civil Wars of England, published posthumously in 1681.

In 1647, Hobbes suffered a near-fatal illness that disabled him for six months. On recovering, he resumed his literary task and completed it by 1650.

In 1654 a small treatise, Of Liberty and Necessity, directed at Hobbes, was published by Bishop John Bramhall, igniting a famous debate on free will and determinism.

Image source: John Bramhall

Bramhall countered in 1655, printing everything that had passed between him and Hobbes under the title A Defence of the True Liberty of Human Actions from Antecedent or Extrinsic Necessity.

In 1656, Hobbes replied 'with astonishing force' to Bishop Bramhall in The Questions Concerning Liberty, Necessity and Chance.

Bramhall returned to the charge in 1658 with Castigations of Mr Hobbes's Animadversions, including a bulky appendix entitled The Catching of Leviathan the Great Whale.

In 1666, the House of Commons introduced a bill against atheism and profaneness, and on 17 October ordered the committee empowered to receive information touching books tending to atheism, blasphemy and profaneness — targeting works like Leviathan. The king was important in protecting Hobbes during this episode.

Image source: House of Commons of England

Among Hobbes's final works was an autobiography written in Latin verse in 1672, reflecting on his long life of scholarship.

Hobbes translated four books of the Odyssey into 'rugged' English rhymes in 1673, which led to a complete translation of both Iliad and Odyssey by 1675.

Image source: Odyssey

In October 1679 Hobbes suffered a bladder disorder, and then a paralytic stroke, from which he died on 4 December 1679, aged 91, at Hardwick Hall, owned by the Cavendish family.

Image source: Hardwick Hall