Catharine Macaulay and the Reception of Hobbes During the Eighteenth Century

Abstract

This chapter looks at the broader reception of Thomas Hobbes during the eighteenth century, and the background to Catharine Macaulay's critique, and offers an account of that critique. Macaulay picks on Hobbes's account of human nature and the view that the only natural motive inducing humans to submit to the laws of society is fear of death or desire for self-preservation. On the costs of democracy as against monarchy, Macaulay simply challenges Hobbes's facts. Since Macaulay's time, belief in God, in natural law, and in immutable moral truths, knowledge of which is available to reason, has been significantly eroded. Macaulay's ad hominem attack on Hobbes also indicates how he can be assume..