Abstract

A long-standing and authoritative interpretation points out the actual starting point of the British philosophy of association in Locke and the so called "new way of ideas", assigning to Hobbes a rather secondary role of forerunner. The distinguished authors who during the 19th century contributed to renew the associationistic standpoint didn't share this opinion. Beginning with James Mill, the democratic reappraisal of Hobbes' political thought went firmly along in Britain with a full appreciation of his psychology. The soundest outcome of this thread in philosophical and historiographic criticism was George Croom Robertson's book which gave rise to the "Hobbes revival" in European thought.