Bacon's rejection of tradition as a source of moral inspiration in favor of investigation of the laws of nature for purposes of technological mastery had a profound influence on his amanuensis, Thomas Hobbes, who was the first to undertake the scientization of politics.  Hobbes essentially redefined the scholastic doctrine of natural law by ridding it of its normative, teleological meaning and reinterpreting human nature in accordance with the principles of Galilean mechanics. . . . Political philosophy as Aristotle understood it was an extension of ethics that aimed to cultivate moral character and to further the attainment of the good life.  Since Hobbes, however, its scope has gradually narrowed to the technical resolution of social problems, thereby contributing to another - the nihilism wrought by a scientization of life.

David Ingram, Habermas and the Dialectic of Reason (1987)

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Readings:

Leviathan (excerpts)

Miscellanea:

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