War II that Hitler’s Nazi regime unleashed caused the
deaths of 50 million people, unprecedented human
suffering, and material destruction. Its attempt to
exterminate the Jewish people resulted in the death of
6 million Jews (the Holocaust). Together, the domestic
tyranny, cruel atrocities, and international terror make
Hitler the most horrifying name in Modern history, a
monster of satanic proportions. This episode in a civi-
lized European country in the 20th century challenged
the MODERN ENLIGHTENMENT optimism over HUMAN
NATUREand social PROGRESS. Philosophically, then, Nazi
fascism led to a POST-MODERNISTrejection of Modernist
reason and order, as well as a revival of traditional
Judeo-CHRISTIANappreciations of human sin and politi-
cal evil.
The ultimate irony of Hitler’s legacy was its short
duration (12 years rather than the supposed thousand
years) and its destruction of the nation that claimed to
be the world’s “master race.” Hitler himself committed
suicide in his underground Berlin bunker as the Russ-
ian and Allied armies conquered the city.
Further Reading
Bullock, A. Hitler.Harmondsworth, Eng.: Penguin Books, 1962.
Hobbes, Thomas (1588–1679) English philo-
sopher and founder of British liberalism
The MODERN LIBERALconcepts of RIGHTS, INDIVIDUALISM,
LIBERTY, government by CONSENT, and SOCIAL CONTRACT
begin with Hobbes’s philosophy. A materialist, he
looked at HUMAN NATUREand society from a scientific,
biological perspective. For Hobbes, people are just like
everything else in the universe: matter in motion. He
applies this scientific method to humans through their
physical senses (sight, smell, hearing, taste, touch),
being their only source of knowledge. Thus, human
action or behavior can be explained by either pain or
pleasure: People have “appetite” to more towardsome-
thing that pleases their senses (beauty, food, warmth,
etc.) and “aversion” to move awayfrom things that
hurt their senses (excessive heat or cold, poverty, or
boring lecturers). All human thoughts, therefore, are
derived from sensory data. This empiricism forms the
philosophical basis of BEHAVIORISMin social science. It
contrasts with earlier Western social thought that
explains human conduct in terms of VIRTUEor ETHICS
(PLATOand ARISTOTLE) or moral reason. It reduces the
human being to the status of any other animal except
for one thing: rationality. Rationality for Hobbes is a
calculating faculty that humans use to add and sub-
tract pleasures and pain. So, unlike other creatures
who are wholly governed by their sensory feelings,
human reason allows us to calculate the total pleasure
or pain of an experience and sometimes endure some
pain for a greater pleasure (like sacrificial saving,
investing) or forgo a pleasure that causes greater pain
later (such as drunkenness, illicit sex, “flying” off a
rooftop).
This materialistic view of Hobbes leads him to
define human relationships in terms of POWER.He
divides power into natural (one’s physical strength,
intelligence, eloquence, beauty) and instrumental
(money, fame, prestige, honor), but more power allows
an individual to acquire more pleasure and avoid more
pain. All humans, then, want more power. This is
because the worth of a person in Hobbes’s view is the
amount of power the person has (or what another
would pay to use it—leading to the labor market). So,
the worth of a person in this materialistic philosophy
is the person’s price. This reduces people to being
products to be bought or sold. It violates the CLASSICAL
and CHRISTIANview of human dignity as a moral being
created in God’s image, capable of noble deeds. Hobbes
reduces human dignity to social prestige, especially
honors (such as titles) conferred by the state (awards,
knighthood, earldoms, etc.).
Such a view of humanity logically leads to an origi-
nal society (or “state of nature”) that is highly compet-
itive and combative. All individuals seek their own
pleasure, power, and prestige, and soon they are in
conflict with each other. In this “natural” state,
Hobbes says, everyone has a right to anything he or
she can get, steal, or kill. Thus, our EQUALITYcomes
from each being able to murder another. Original
human society is a jungle existence—full of violence
and insecurity. This prevents higher development of
economics, culture, art, luxury, or learning. So, in this
dangerous setting, human reason comes to the rescue:
it tells the person that it is better to give up some lib-
erty in exchange for security.
The government is formed by a social contract of
all those individuals (by consent) surrendering their
rights to the sovereign state (preferably a monarch)
who, in exchange, promises to protect them from
theft, murder, kidnapping, and so on. The STATE, for
Hobbes, must have ABSOLUTISTpower to accomplish
this because people are prone to break their promises.
He advocates a strong, terrifying state to keep peopleHobbes, Thomas 141