Political Philosophy of Thomas Hobbes and Rene Descartes

Political Philosophy of Thomas Hobbes and Rene Descartes <center><i>"Politics should be the application of the science Of man to the construction of the community" Explain this remark and discuss what reasons there might be for thinking it is not true</i></center> In this essay I intend to examine the political philosophy of Thomas Hobbes and Rene Descartes, in particular their ideas relating to the science of man, and attempt to explain why …

…hand, believe that a science of man is impossible; Descartes because he believes that our minds are immaterial and Davidson because man’s behaviour follows no causal laws. All of this shows us that trying to interpret man’s actions and apply them to a science is an impossible conquest. Man is too complicated a mechanism to understand and therefore political philosophy, for a sensible and rational social structure, must be founded on another basis.