Analysis Of Thomas Hobbes Leviathan

Thomas Hobbes’s motivation behind the book, Leviathan, is derived from the perception of a man and his intellect Hobbes purpose is to comprehend the condition of a man, which leads to the understanding of mankind, because the state of a man is nothing but artificial. To elaborate this notion, what dominates a man is his soul therefore the guidance is brought by a man’s joint and the consequences of an action are related to the nerves of a man. Hobbes claims the best way to understand mankind is to turn their thinking inwards and study oneself, which leads to understanding our thoughts, desires, and reflecting on the origin of these beliefs.
According to Leviathan, the logical way to comprehend the thoughts of a man is through its senses; the …show more content…
Animals do not have the capacity to think or understand as humans do. Hobbes believes that thought may seem random but it can be traced to a logically perfect thought process. This is important to understand because it takes us back to Hobbes thesis about, constantly interacting motions in our minds. A thought is connecting with a desire and means to achieve that desire. Thoughts are embedded in our minds and can be portrayed by speaking to others, which helps us remember our past thoughts and express them to others. Humans have memories and imaginations of their own but reason and thoughts differentiate humans from animals. Humans have a unique mind which can connect on thought that may have taken years ago and connect it to a thought that may be recent. For example, you are at a retail store and you start to crave ice cream. This may seem random but if you try to remember this can go back to when you had ice cream while shopping and you enjoyed that moment a lot. Some moments are connected and thoughts are a part of that …show more content…
The idea of “blank slate,” the view is that we come in this world not knowing anything and then learn from the experiences we gain. So if we have never experienced something, how can we imagine it? Hobbes argument to this would be from a prime example of a unicorn. Even though we have never seen a unicorn, we can some how imagine a horse with a horn on his head. How is this possible? The way we would imagine this, is by knowing and understanding the two objects from our past experience. We should know that a unicorn requires a horse and a horn, when we can imagine both things individually, we can start by combining them and then imagine the picture we created. This is the idea of “simple imagination” that Hobbes is trying to explain. Hobbes method of determining human nature seems mathematical based, he seems to a have a formula for everything. The world is always in motion, this shows human are constantly in motion, which means we gain experiences as feelings, we acknowledge that we have endless wants and desires. If this world was in a state of rest, that would mean are desires would be limited and human nature would be at peace. Hobbes argument about motion is the foundation of a much bigger argument, which we will come to see his man argument regarding man and