On Leviathan: An exegetical analysis (part one)
...t. Chapters two and three provide many definitions regarding imagination. Boldly put, “imagination is nothing but decaying sense” (Wootton p.126) and so too memory is only decayed sense. Hobbes’ reductionism rears its modern face throughout the pages of these chapters. Thomas Hobbes may also be viewed as a Nominalist for his postulations in chapters four and five regarding speech and science. Understanding, as we call it, is nothing more to Hobbes than a notion caused by speech. Truth is nothing above and beyond “the right ordering of names” (Wootton p.134) and names are the only universals that exist. Consequently, Hobbes summarizes reasoning and science as mathematical operations of general names. Now armed with the power of proper nomenclature, Hobbes constructs a human psychology he calls the “passions: the interior beginnings of voluntary motions” (Wootton p.140). Of the voluntary variety, every action a person performs is motivated by a pursuit to quench various appetites or to avoid perilous consequence. While many commentators feel as though Hobbes had effectively categorized human psychology in a manner the was both consistent with his earlier premise that truth is equivalent to proper naming, others such as Bernard Gert feel that the Hobbesian definitions contained within the early chapters of Leviathan may not be well thought out or entirely accurate. Gert claims that Hobbes was more concerned with appealing to the consensus when forming his definitions rather than providing a scientific analysis of the human psyche. To be taken seriously, Hobbes’ definitions could not radically violate common sense conception and so he may have opted for a cause and effect language that did not offend base-knowledge. (Sorell p.163). Regardless of strength or weakness the Hobbesian dictionary of early Leviathan was designed to show that motion had internal occurrences that complemented those of the external world. Following his discussion of all attributes belonging to the individual, Hobbes turns his attention to the various forms of motion that bind individuals in their effects upon one another. In chapter eleven, Hobbes engages in an interpretation of manners: the qualities that enable living together, by refuting many Aristotelian tenants. There is no highest good, no utmost aim, and no happiness derived from a life well lived. There exists only continual frustration for humans as we go from satisfying on desire to another, each satisfaction being mere means to the satisfaction of the next desire (Wootton p.159). Motion, cause, and effect are also responsible for communal religion in the world. Hobbes believes that humans are the only creatures in the world that possess the ability to create religion and we do so to quench our curiosity about causes and beginnings. Hobbes finds religious endeavor to be a foolish pursuit because we cannot gain knowledge of “incorporeal” substances ( quite materialist, wouldn’t you agree). Hobbes then suggests four possible “seeds” of religion, all showing that humans will believe just about anything so long as it is propounded forcefully enough by those in power. In fact, Hobbes suggests, rather strongly, that the most fundamental cause of religion is the need for rulers to claim that their commands over the people come from god rather than his own will to power. The remaining chapters of Part One of Leviathan dictate the Hobbesian state of nature and the laws by which it is governed; all carefully posited to show the need for the Commonwealth described in Part Two. Tom Sorell argues in his series The Arguments of the Philosophers: Hobbes that the Hobbesian portrait of natural man is that of pure egoism (p.101). Hobbes himself would quite likely agree with such an obvious deduction. In chapter thirteen, Hobbes explains in great detail the position of man in a state of nature. Essentially, all men are of equal capacity in mind and body and so seek to exploit the same resources thus putting natural man at odds with one another. In a state of nature, man is also thrown into conflict by maintain...