Analyze the role played by fear in Leviathan. Focus in particular on the
function of fear among men living in the state of nature, compared to the
function of fear among men living under the Leviathan. What is the same
about fear in these two settings? What is different? You are afraid that
something will happen as you did not expect. In one you are afraid that
someone will punish you and in another you are afraid that something
will not turn out as you expected.
Why does Hobbes eliminate all ecclesiastical authority, including popes,
priests, ministers, clergymen, monks, and professional theologians, from the
Leviathan? Perhaps because he does not want to establish any type of
religion and that everyone is free even to think about what to believe
and what not.
Why does Hobbes believe that his philosophy, which is ultimately based on
the authority and judgment of the sovereign, is more secure and more
capable of ensuring peace than any philosophy based on the observation of
nature? Because Hobbes sees man as an evil and Hobbes considers that
government is necessary to control natural law.
Fear and reason constitute the two innate qualities of natural man that let
him escape the state of nature. Hobbes explains the origins of fear in terms
of appetite and aversion, where fear is the simply the aversion to injury and
death. How does Hobbes explain the origins of reason in natural man?
Hobbes explains the origins of reason in natural man as something in
which it can be used to eradicate the evil of man.
What does Hobbes mean by the term "The Kingdom of Darkness"?
Hobbes believes that the Leviathan is the perfect society to ensure peace and
happiness. In this sense it is a utopian civilization. But the Leviathan is also
strikingly fascist and totalitarian. Can you reconcile Hobbes's ideas of utopia
with the totalitarian methods he advocates? Is Hobbes's Leviathan a
desirable place to live? With the term "The kingdom of darkness"
Hobbes perhaps refers to a king who rules over a supposed territory of
evil people. I do not think I reconcile Hobbes's ideas of utopia with the
totalitarian methods that he defends because totalitarian governments
cause a lot of fear, it causes people to not want to accept this type of
government because they would not be free to change something about
the government that they do not like, it could cause a lot of political
corruption, etc. Not because it is a fairly totalitarian government and
nobody likes the idea of having to obey strict rules set by a specific
governor and that citizens cannot change something about the
government that they do not like.
Hobbes had a famous written debate with Robert Boyle about Boyle's
invention of the air pump and the study of natural phenomena in the vacuum
supposedly produced inside the air pump. Knowing what you do about
Hobbes's philosophy, why do you think that Hobbes would claim that
Boyle's air pump did not produce reliable conclusions or useful knowledge?
(Think of at least two different reasons.) It was therefore to be expected
that the facts and theories defended by Boyle did not receive unanimous
approval.
One of the biggest opponents Boyle encountered to his claims was
Thomas Hobbes, a central figure in Anglo-Saxon philosophy at the time.
In particular, Hobbes would deny that it was possible to create a
vacuum in nature, and this not by virtue of arguments based on the
Aristotelian “horror of vacuum” but on the nature of air and the
operation of the pump itself. under discussion. On the one hand, he
questioned the watertight nature of the created pump, stating that it
allowed air to pass through different places and that therefore the
vacuum supposedly generated was not such. On the other hand, and
reflecting his general philosophical conceptions, Hobbes pointed out
that all adequate philosophical research should start from solid and
precise conceptual definitions, without entering into contradictions of
meaning resulting from a misuse of language: he argued that depending
on the correct definitions of what "air" or "emptiness" was, the
emptiness in nature was not possible ... because the emptiness did not
exist.