Leonard Trelawny Hobhouse, FBA (8 September 1864 – 21 June 1929) was an English liberal political theorist and sociologist, who has been considered one of the leading and earliest proponents of

social liberalism Social liberalism (german: Sozialliberalismus, es, socioliberalismo, nl, Sociaalliberalisme), also known as new liberalism in the United Kingdom, modern liberalism, or simply liberalism in the contemporary United States, left-liberalism ...

. His works, culminating in his famous book ''Liberalism'' (1911), occupy a seminal position within the canon of New Liberalism. He worked both as an academic and a journalist, and played a key role in the establishment of sociology as an academic discipline; in 1907 he shared, with Edward Westermarck, the distinction of being the first professor of sociology to be appointed in the United Kingdom, at the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degr ...

. He was also the founder and first editor of '' The Sociological Review''. His sister was Emily Hobhouse, the British welfare activist.

Life

Hobhouse was born in St Ive, near Liskeard in Cornwall, the son of

Reginald Hobhouse The Ven. Reginald Hobhouse, MA (18 March 1818 – 27 January 1895), was an Anglican priest: the Archdeacon of Bodmin from 1878 to 1892. Early life He was born on 18 March 1818 as the third son of Henry Hobhouse, under-secretary of state ...

, an

Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of t ...

clergyman, and Caroline Trelawny. He attended Marlborough College before reading Greats at

Corpus Christi College, Oxford Corpus Christi College (formally, Corpus Christi College in the University of Oxford; informally abbreviated as Corpus or CCC) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1517, it is the 12t ...

, where he graduated with a first-class degree in 1887. Upon his graduation, Hobhouse remained at Oxford as a prize fellow at

Merton College Merton College (in full: The House or College of Scholars of Merton in the University of Oxford) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. Its foundation can be traced back to the 1260s when Walter de Merton, ...

before becoming a full fellow at Corpus Christi.Meadowcroft, James (ed.) ''Hobhouse: Liberalism and Other Writings''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994. pp. ix–x. Taking a break from academia between 1897 and 1907, Hobhouse worked as a journalist (including a stint with the ''

Manchester Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the G ...

'') and as the secretary of a trade union. In 1907, Hobhouse returned to academia, accepting the newly-created chair of sociology at the

, titled the Martin White Professor of Sociology, where he remained until his death in 1929. Hobhouse was also an

atheist Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no ...

from an early age, despite his father being an

archdeacon An archdeacon is a senior clergy position in the Church of the East, Chaldean Catholic Church, Syriac Orthodox Church, Anglican Communion, St Thomas Christians, Eastern Orthodox churches and some other Christian denominations, above that of mo ...

J A Hobson John Atkinson Hobson (6 July 1858 – 1 April 1940) was an English economist and social scientist. Hobson is best known for his writing on imperialism, which influenced Vladimir Lenin, and his theory of underconsumption. His principal and ea ...

and

Morris Ginsberg Morris Ginsberg FBA (14 May 1889 – 31 August 1970) was a British sociologist, who played a key role in the development of the discipline. He served as editor of '' The Sociological Review'' in the 1930s and later became the founding chairm ...

, ''L. T. Hobhouse: His life and work'', George Allen & Unwin, 1931, p.17. He believed that rational tests could be applied to values and that they could be self-consistent and objective. Hobhouse was never religious. He wrote in 1883 that he was "in politics... a firm radical. In religion... an (if possible yet firmer)

agnostic Agnosticism is the view or belief that the existence of God, of the divine or the supernatural is unknown or unknowable. (page 56 in 1967 edition) Another definition provided is the view that "human reason is incapable of providing sufficien ...

Collini, Stefan Stefan Collini (born 6 September 1947)COLLINI, Prof. Stefan Anthony
''Who ...

. ''Liberalism and Sociology: L. T. Hobhouse and Political Argument in England 1880-1914'' (1983). p. 54 In terms of his political and philosophical views, Hobhouse was

Gladstonian William Ewart Gladstone ( ; 29 December 1809 – 19 May 1898) was a British statesman and Liberal politician. In a career lasting over 60 years, he served for 12 years as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, spread over four non-conse ...

; a devoted follower of the philosopher

John Stuart Mill John Stuart Mill (20 May 1806 – 7 May 1873) was an English philosopher, political economist, Member of Parliament (MP) and civil servant. One of the most influential thinkers in the history of classical liberalism, he contributed widely to ...

; and an admirer of

John Morley John Morley, 1st Viscount Morley of Blackburn, (24 December 1838 – 23 September 1923) was a British Liberal statesman, writer and newspaper editor. Initially, a journalist in the North of England and then editor of the newly Liberal-leani ...

, Bradlaugh; and

Sir Charles Dilke, 2nd Baronet Sir Charles Wentworth Dilke, 2nd Baronet, PC (4 September 1843 – 26 January 1911) was an English Liberal and Radical politician. A republican in the early 1870s, he later became a leader in the radical challenge to Whig control of the Lib ...

. These influences led him to various

feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...

, democratic and secularist political stances. He often proposed republican and democratic motions at debating societies while he was at school.

Economic policy

Hobhouse was important in underpinning the turn-of-the-century 'New Liberal' movement of the Liberal Party under leaders like

H. H. Asquith Herbert Henry Asquith, 1st Earl of Oxford and Asquith, (12 September 1852 – 15 February 1928), generally known as H. H. Asquith, was a British statesman and Liberal Party politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom ...

and

David Lloyd George David Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor, (17 January 1863 – 26 March 1945) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1916 to 1922. He was a Liberal Party (United Kingdom), Liberal Party politician from Wales, known for lea ...

. He distinguished between property held 'for use' and property held 'for power'. Governmental co-operation with trade unions could therefore be justified as helping to counter the structural disadvantage of employees in terms of power. He also theorised that property was acquired not only by individual effort but by societal organisation. Essentially, wealth had a social dimension and was a collective product. That means that those who had property owed some of their success to society and thus had some obligation to others. He believed that to provide theoretical justification for a level of redistribution provided by the new state pensions. Hobhouse disliked

Marxist Marxism is a left-wing to far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand class relations and social conflict and a dialecti ...

socialism and described his own position as

liberal socialism Liberal socialism is a political philosophy that incorporates liberal principles to socialism. This synthesis sees liberalism as the political theory that takes the inner freedom of the human spirit as a given and adopts liberty as the goal, ...

and later as

. Hobhouse thus occupied a particularly-important place in the intellectual history of the Liberal Democrats.

Civil liberty

His work also presents a positive vision of

liberalism Liberalism is a Political philosophy, political and moral philosophy based on the Individual rights, rights of the individual, liberty, consent of the governed, political equality and equality before the law."political rationalism, hostilit ...

in which the purpose of liberty is to enable individuals to develop, not solely that freedom is good in itself. Hobhouse said that coercion should be avoided not for lack of regard for other people's well-being but because coercion is ineffective at improving their lot. While rejecting the practical doctrines of

classical liberalism Classical liberalism is a political tradition and a branch of liberalism that advocates free market and laissez-faire economics; civil liberties under the rule of law with especial emphasis on individual autonomy, limited government, e ...

laissez-faire ''Laissez-faire'' ( ; from french: laissez faire , ) is an economic system in which transactions between private groups of people are free from any form of economic interventionism (such as subsidies) deriving from special interest groups ...

, Hobhouse praised the work of earlier classical liberals like Richard Cobden in dismantling an archaic order of society and older forms of coercion. Hobhouse believed that one of the defining characteristics of liberalism was its emancipatory character, something that he believed ran constant from classical liberalism to the social liberalism he advocated. He nevertheless emphasised the various forms of coercion already existing in society apart from government. Therefore, he proposed that to promote liberty, the state must ameliorate other forms of social coercion. Hobhouse held out hope that Liberals and what would now be called the social democrat tendency in the nascent Labour Party could form a grand progressive coalition.

Foreign policy

Hobhouse was often disappointed that fellow collectivists in Britain at the time also tended to be imperialists. Hobhouse opposed the

Boer War The Second Boer War ( af, Tweede Vryheidsoorlog, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, the Anglo–Boer War, or the South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer Republics (the Sou ...

, and his sister, Emily Hobhouse, did much to draw attention to the abject conditions in the concentration camps established by the British Army in South Africa. Initially opposing the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

, he later came to support the war effort. He was an internationalist and disliked the pursuit of British national interests as practised by the governments of the day. During the war, Hobhouse criticised the British Idealists such as Bernard Bosanquet in his book ''The Metaphysical Theory of the State'' (1918) for being Hegelians and therefore Germanizers.

Works

''The Labour Movement''
(1893) reprinted 1912
''Theory of Knowledge: a contribution to some problems of logic and metaphysics''
(1896)
''Mind in Evolution''
(1901)
''Democracy and Reaction''
(1905) *''Morals in Evolution: a Study in Comparative Ethics'' in two volumes (1906) *''

Liberalism Liberalism is a Political philosophy, political and moral philosophy based on the Individual rights, rights of the individual, liberty, consent of the governed, political equality and equality before the law."political rationalism, hostilit ...

'' (1911)
''Social Evolution and Political Theory''
(1911)
''Development and Purpose''
(1913)
''The Material Culture and Social Institutions of the Simpler Peoples : An Essay in Correlation''
(London: Chapman and Hall, 1915, reprinted 1930). *''Questions Of War And Peace'' (1916)
''The Metaphysical Theory of the State: a criticism''
(1918)
''The Rational Good: a study in the logic of practice''
(1921)
''The Elements of Social Justice''
(1922) *''Social Development: its Nature and Conditions'' (1924) *''Sociology and Philosophy: a Centenary Collection of Essays and Articles'' (1966)

References

External links

* * * * *
Short biography by David Howarth MP

Profile at the Liberal International
* – A film directed by

Dirk de Villiers Dirk de Villiers (26 July 1924 – 28 December 2009), was a South African filmmaker. Considered as the most prolific filmmaker and 'Godfather' in South African film industry, de Villiers has made several critically acclaim films in a career sp ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hobhouse, Leonard Trelawny 1864 births 1929 deaths People from St Ive People educated at Marlborough College Alumni of Corpus Christi College, Oxford Fellows of Corpus Christi College, Oxford Academics of the University of London English sociologists English political philosophers English agnostics English republicans British secularists British radicals British social liberals Leonard