Why can it be said that Hobbes is the founder of modern political liberalism? "For these words of good, evil, and contemptible are ever used with relation to the person that useth them: there being nothing simply and absolutely so; nor any common rule of good and evil to be taken from the nature of the objects themselves." Discuss in detail the ethical and political thought of Thomas Hobbes.

This quote relates to Hobbes's belief in Mechanism, a view that everything in the universe is explained by the interactions of material objects. Mechanism related to the idea of materialism, which is that there is only one substance in existence in the world. The theories of Mechanism and materialism, which Hobbes helped to explain and expound, were opposed to the philosophy of dualism, which stated that there were two distinct substances of things in the world. An example of dualism is Descartes's idea of the separation of the mind and the body.
Hobbes believed that all human actions and emotions originate in bodily actions,  which are referred to as endeavors. In turn, all these bodily actions can be traced to universal laws that govern the mechanical workings of the universe. Therefore, there is a strong and direct connection between the social and psychological world and the physical world, in Hobbes's view. In the passage above, Hobbes expresses his view that there is nothing that is inherently good or evil; instead, the world is objectively neutral, and it is people who give things in the world their subjective quality. Therefore, Hobbes was a relativist in terms of ethics.
Hobbes can be seen as a founder of modern liberal theory (though others think of him as a totalitarian) because he believed that man is born into a state of nature in which he enjoys a certain degree of liberty. People give up this liberty to enter into a social contract with a ruler, but they have the right to reject the ruler if the ruler violates the protections the ruler must adhere to. Hobbes's belief in humans' right to a certain degree of liberty marks him in some ways as a liberal.