Francis Bacon, Thomas Hobbes and the Causes of the English Civil War

• In Event: Rhetoric, Politics, and Hobbes

Abstract

The paper examines Francis Bacon’s and Thomas Hobbes’s notions of the ars rhetorica and its possible role in causing tumults, rebellions and civil wars. Hobbes famously argued that the English civil war had been caused by the classical education of humanist schoolmasters. The first part of the paper places Hobbes’s account into its intellectual and educational context. The second part will explore Bacon's views on classical education, rhetoric and politics as part of the same context. It will argue that, although Bacon was clearly aware of the Hobbesian argument about the dangers of rhetoric, he dismissed them and fully embraced the contrasting argument about the centrality of the ars rhetorica in politics and civic life.

Author

• Markku Peltonen, University of Helsinki