Leonard Trelawny Hobhouse

Leonard Trelawny Hobhouse (September 8, 1864 – June 21, 1929) was a British liberal sociologist and politician, one of the theorists of social liberalism. He worked as an academic and a journalist, and was the first professor of sociology appointed in a British university.

Life

Leonard Trelawny Hobhouse was born on September 8, 1864 in St. Ives, Cornwall, England, into the prominent Anglican family of Reverend Reginald Hobhouse and Caroline Trelawny. His sister Emily Hobhouse became a noted social worker and welfare campaigner.

Hobhouse was educated at Marlborough and Corpus Christi College, Oxford. In 1890, he became assistant tutor at Corpus Christi, and in 1894 was elected fellow of the college. He published his first two books The Labour Movement in 1893, and The Theory of Knowledge in 1896, which became immediate successes.

In 1897, Hobhouse joined the staff of the Manchester Guardian, where he stayed until 1901. He wrote his famous Mind in Evolution in 1901 and Democracy and Reaction in 1904.

In 1902 Hobhouse moved to London and became actively involved in politics. From 1902 to 1905 he was the secretary of the Free Trade Union. He then joined the staff of the Sociological Review where he obtained the duty of the journal’s editor. In 1906 he started, together with J. L. Hammond, Henry Brailsford, and Philip Gibbs, a new Liberal newspaper called the Tribune. He also served as an active member of the Adult Suffrage Society.

In 1906 he published his perhaps most famous work, Morals in Evolution. Based on his achievements, in 1907, he was appointed the first professor of sociology at the University of London. He continued to publish articles in the Manchester Guardian and in 1911 became the paper’s director.

With the start of the World War I in 1914, Hobhouse together with two other important figures of British journalism, C. P. Scott and Charles Montague, urged the British government to remain neutral in the growing conflict in Europe. Nevertheless, once the war had already started, he gave his support to the government. He soon however became horrified by the devastation of the war, and called for the negotiated peace.

After the war, Hobhouse wrote several other important works, among others The Metaphysical Theory of the State (1918), The Rational Good (1921), The Elements of Social Justice (1922) and Social Development (1924). However, he became disillusioned with liberal bureaucracy and retired from political activity. He remained professor at the University of London until the very last days of his life.

Hobhouse died on June 21, 1929 in Alençon, France

Work

Economic Policy

Leonard Hobhouse was important in underpinning the turn-of-the-century "New Liberal" movement of the Liberal party under leaders like Herbert Henry Asquith and David Lloyd George. In his first important work, The Labour Movement (1893), he urged for the unification of the forces of trade unionism and those of reform liberalism. He claimed that the collective control of industry and agriculture is needed in order to ensure more efficient and more equitable distribution of life's necessities.

He distinguished between property held "for use" and property held "for power." He also theorized that property was acquired not only by individual effort but by societal organization (meaning, those who had property owed some of their success and thus had some obligation to society), providing theoretical justification for a level of redistribution provided by the new state pensions. It is important to note, however, that Hobhouse disliked Marxist socialism, describing his own position as "liberal socialism," though today it would be called social democracy.

Hobhouse’s political and economical views changed after the World War I. He became disillusioned with large-scale government institutions, starting to advocate for a modified form of "guild socialism."

Philosophical views

In his Theory of Knowledge (1896), Hobhouse opposed the philosophical]] idealism dominant at Oxford. He believed that human rationality and knowledge itself serve as the means of social change, and thus any restrictions in the development of that knowledge would lead toward obstruction of social progress.

Hobhouse’s work also presents a positive vision of liberalism in which the purpose of liberty is to enable individuals to develop. Hobhouse rejected classical liberalism, noting the work of other liberals who had pointed out the various forms of coercion already existing in society apart from government. Therefore, he proposed that to promote liberty the government must control those factors already existing which worked against it.

His Mind in Evolution from 1901 is often regarded as one of the early classics of comparative psychology. In it he criticized Social Darwinists who claimed that society progressed through the survival of the fittest social institutions. They rejected conscious social reforms, claiming that such reforms only hinder the evolutionary advance of humankind. Hobhouse stood against such claims, arguing that with the discovery of science and with his rational knowledge, humankind surpassed the level of a sole struggle for existence. Biological evolution had thus been replaced by conscious development, and social reforms replace struggle as the means of preserving the species.

In his Morals in Evolution (1906), Hobhouse classified human intellectual achievement, including morality, religion, knowledge, and political, and economic institutions. He believed that humanity had reached the point where it can organize itself into a harmonized social system that could be of benefit for all individuals that are part of that system.

Foreign Policy

Hobhouse was often disappointed that fellow collectivists in Britain at the time also tended to be Imperialists. Hobhouse opposed imperialism. He criticized the Boer wars and had reservations about the First World War. He was an Internationalist and disliked the pursuit of British national interests as practiced by the governments of the day.

After the World War I he argued that winning nations need to negotiate a settlement with Germany, rather than to punish it for the war. He also urged for the constitution of the League of Nations, which might be transformed into a world state.

Legacy

In the history of political thought, Hobhouse is considered as one of most important heirs of the liberal tradition of John Stuart Mill. Hobhouse's Liberalism (1911) became a classic, probably the best twentieth century statement of liberal ideals. Hobhouse was one of the founders of theoretical sociology in Britain and served as the first professor of sociology in Britain. His work had some impact on the sociological theory in the United States in 1920s and 1930s, but had very limited influence by the second half of the twentieth century.

Publications

• Hobhouse, Leonard T. 1922. The Elements of Social Justice. H. Holt and Co.
• Hobhouse, Leonard T. 1924. Social Development: Its Nature and Conditions. H. Holt and Co.
• Hobhouse, Leonard T. 1964. Liberalism. New York: Oxford University Press.
• Hobhouse, Leonard T. 1966. Sociology and Philosophy: A Centenary Collection of Essays and Articles. Harvard University Press
• Hobhouse, Leonard T. 1973 (original work published 1904). Democracy and Reaction. Barnes & Noble Books. ISBN 0064929019
• Hobhouse, Leonard T. 1975 (original work published 1915). The Material Culture and Social Institutions of the Simpler Peoples. Ayer Co Pub. ISBN 0405065132
• Hobhouse, Leonard T. 2001 (original work published 1901). Mind in Evolution. Thoemmes Continuum. ISBN 1855066882
• Hobhouse, Leonard T. 2002 (original work published 1911). Liberalism. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195003322
• Hobhouse, Leonard T. 2004 (original work published 1896). Theory of Knowledge: A Contribution to Some Problems of Logic and Metaphysics. University Press of the Pacific. ISBN 1410216454
• Hobhouse, Leonard T. 2004 (original work published 1906). Morals in Evolution: A Study in Comparative Ethics. University Press of the Pacific. ISBN 1410215954
• Hobhouse, Leonard T. 2004 (original work published 1911). Social Evolution and Political Theory. University Press of the Pacific. ISBN 1410215814
• Hobhouse, Leonard T. 2004 (original work published 1913). Development and Purpose: An Essay Towards A Philosophy Of Evolution. University Press of the Pacific. ISBN 1410216373
• Hobhouse, Leonard T. 2004 (original work published 1918). The Metaphysical Theory of the State. University Press of the Pacific. ISBN 1410216640
• Hobhouse, Leonard T. 2004 (original work published 1921). The Rational Good: A Study in the Logic of Practice. University Press of the Pacific. ISBN 1410216217
• Hobhouse, Leonard T. 2007 (original work published 1893). Labor Movement. Cornell University Library. ISBN 1429740809

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Barker, Ernest. 1931. Leonard Trelawny Hobhouse, 1864-1929. H. Milford
• BookRags.com. Encyclopedia of World Biography on Leonard Trelawny Hobhouse. Retrieved on March 24, 2007, <http://www.bookrags.com/Leonard_Trelawny_Hobhouse>
• Collini, Stefan. 1983. Liberalism and Sociology: L T Hobhouse and Political Argument in England 1880-1914. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521274087
• London School Of Economics. L.T. Hobhouse. Retrieved on March 25, 2007, <http://www.lse.ac.uk/resources/LSEHistory/hobhouse.htm>
• Meadowcroft, James. 1995. Conceptualizing the State: Innovation and Dispute in British Political Thought 1880-1914. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0198206011
• Nicholson, J. A. 1928. Some aspects of the philosophy of L.T. Hobhouse logic and social theory. Urbana, Ill: University of Illinois.
• Owen, John. 1975. L.T.Hobhouse, Sociologist. Thomas Nelson & Sons Ltd. ISBN 0177110805
• Spartacus Schoolnet. L.T. Hobhouse. Retrieved on March 24, 2007, <http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/Jhobhouse.htm>

External links

• Biography of Hobhouse - Biography by David Howarth. Retrieved March 25, 2007.
• Modern History Sourcebook: L. T. Hobhouse – Excerpts from L. T. Hobhouse's Liberalism (1911) Retrieved March 25, 2007.
• The Liberalism - Full-text online edition of Hobhouse’s book. Retrieved March 25, 2007.
• The Metaphysical Theory of the State – Full-text online edition of Hobhouse’s book. Retrieved March 25, 2007.

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