10. Thomas Hobbes (1588AD - 1679AD)

1. Hobbes is known for his emphasis on materialism. Hobbes was educated at Oxford and worked as a tutor to the son of William Cavendish. His connections to the royal family gave him opportunities to travel and pursue his studies, but they also put him in the middle of the English Civil War. In 1640 political turmoil forced him to leave England for France, where he continued to associate with scholars and scientists of Europe, including Galileo and René Descartes. Materialism means, greater interest in material possessions rather than spiritual values. Materialist thinkers were of the view that matter is dynamic, which means that matter changes from one form to another.
2. Hobbes put forward the view that all we see including humans are different forms of matter and the laws that govern matter are also applicable to animals and humans, therefore these laws can be discovered. He contented that animals and man are in fact different types of machines and their functions and operations can be studied, understood, explained and even predicted. This mechanical view of human beings was initially given by Rene Descartes. Hobbes went on to elaborate the idea given by Descartes by saying that all human feelings and emotions such as laughing, crying, feeling hungry could be understood and explained in terms of functions of the human machines. This means that there has to be an input into the human machine in order to get an output in the form of the above mentioned functions of the human machine.
3. For example, when a person is subject to heavy stress, he may start crying. A person who has not eaten for a long time starts feeling hungry. Therefore, the human machine has to have some sort of an input in order to give the above mentioned responses as its functions or outputs. Hobbes concentrated on finding similarities between humans and machines and this idea of finding similarities between man and machines is called “mechanical materialism”.
4. Hobbes was of the opinion that our thoughts and emotions are caused by the motion the external stimuli. As the variables of the external stimuli change, they impact the human body which results in emotions and thoughts. He further proclaimed that motion in the brain creates thoughts. Then these thoughts get accumulated and get connected. This results in creating chains of thoughts or ideas leading to complex ideas. This is what has been termed as the association of ideas. Aristotle has also given his explanation of association of ideas which according to him is caused due to similarity, contiguity and contrast.
5. Thomas Hobbes believed that knowledge can be acquired by observation through the sense organs. Therefore, he rejected the idea of introspection and agreed with Aristotle’s empiricism as a means of acquiring knowledge.
6. According to Hobbes three things create association:\
   • Habits
   • Wishes
   • Repetition
7. Habits result in association of ideas. Wishes create linkages in ideas. A person who wishes for something links many ideas with his wish which in turn results in association of ideas. Further, repetition of event also results in association of ideas. This is similar to Aristotle’s contiguity and similarity when two things happening close to each other or having similarity with each other result in association of ideas.