Thomas Hobbes:
1.He took his stand neither on theology nor on tradition but on his study of human nature.
2.He was a creature of his times as was Machiavelli.
Previous Traditions of thoughts:
1). Rational-Liberal = Plato & Aristotle:
2). Will and Artifice = Hobbes (Society is not natural but Artificial).
3). Historical Coherence = Rousseau's General Will (1 + 2)
Hobbes' Spiritual Ancestry:
1.Agrees with Machiavelli's on Human nature and that the state could transform a man into a moral being by the exercise of a master's rod.
2.To Bodin for his conception of Sovereignty but no limitations on sovereign.
3.Like Machiavelli subordinated ethics and religion to politics and was the first prophet of unlimited Sovereignty(Legal Sovereignty).
Hobbes on Scientific Materialism:
1.Hobbes attempted to to provide a materialist psychological and sociological foundation for a a new political theory, based on the assumption that human conduct was determined as the conduct of ants and bees is determined by reflex actions following known laws on the basis of mechanical process of causation and effect.
2.He tried to bring psychology and politics to the level of the physical sciences.