Browsing by Author "Suur, Tiina"

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Ateism Thomas Hobbesi filosoofias
(Tartu Ülikool, 2018) Suur, Tiina; Jakapi, Roomet, juhendaja; Tartu Ülikool. Humanitaarteaduste ja kunstide valdkond; Tartu Ülikool. Filosoofia osakond
The purpose of my thesis is to find out whether there is any atheism in the philosophy of 17th century thinker Thomas Hobbes. To start with, I gave an introductory overview of Hobbes's life so it would be easier to understand what is the background he is coming from. Then I discussed three main subjects that are important in his philosophy: materialism, political philosophy about government, and theory of life after death. Firstly I made it clear what these three subjects are, secondly I brought forth his ideas that weren't presented clearly enough within these three topics that could indicate his possible atheism. For example Hobbes being a materialist and his reasoning about the existence of God. Lastly I presented the conclusions that I made relying on the analysis of these three subjects. I inferred that even though Hobbes was considered to be an atheist during his lifetime, nowadays he would rather be thought of as a deist and that because of the definition I gave for an atheist – atheist is a person who denies the existence of God. Hobbes did not deny it, quite the opposite, he said that God does exist but he doesn't intervene in people's lives. I also concluded that Hobbes was considered to be an atheist because his understandings of God did not match with the Christian understanding of God which was the dominant way of thinking back in the 17th century. In addition I added that the confusion in some places in his theories came from the pressure of the society. What is meant is that taking into account the dominant Christian way of thinking it was almost impossible to write any philosophy without considering God, that means that Hobbes had to say something about God even if it was not in consistency with his understandings of the world, for example his materialism. It is also important to understand that it can't be said with confidence that Hobbes was an atheist or a deist because in different centuries there have been different understandings of these concepts. He can be thought of as an atheist or as a deist only in the corresponding era.