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Themes
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LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Leviathan, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Nature, War, and Civil Society
Power, Common-wealths, and Monarchies
Religion
Fear
Reason, Fact, and Philosophy
Summary
Analysis
When a human reasons, they conceive a sum based on the addition or subtraction of one thing to another. The same process can be applied to thoughts and words. Thoughts are nothing more than the consequences of a name, either in whole or in part, to another name, itself either in whole or in part. Numbers can be added, subtracted, multiplied, and divided; however, so can thoughts and words. Mathematicians work with numbers, geometricians work with lines and figures, and philosophers work with words and thoughts. Philosophers concerned with politics work with laws and duties that are either right or wrong in relation to private humans. Wherever there is addition and subtraction of one thing to another, there is also reason.
Although it is easily lost in his lengthy explanation of humans in nature, Hobbes’s main objective in Leviathan is political philosophy. Here, Hobbes compares philosophy, particularly political philosophy, to mathematics and geometry, and in doing so he elevates the credibility and logical soundness of his own philosophy to that of arithmetic. In mathematics there are established definitions and factual answers to questions, and Hobbes attempts to extend this infallibility to his own philosophy.
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Reason, Hobbes says, “is nothing but Reckoning (that is, Adding and Subtracting) of the Consequences of generall names agreed upon, for the marking and signifying of our thoughts.” Just as in mathematics, those inexperienced in the reasoning of words and thoughts are bound to make false conclusions, and even the most practiced people can fall prey to errors. Reason in words and thoughts is not always correct, as it is in mathematics, and one person’s reason cannot be made certain. When people think themselves wiser than others in general and consider their own reason definite, this makes for an unbearable society for others.
Hobbes argues that words and thoughts can never be made certain in the way numbers can. Ironically, though he presents his own words and reason as if they are certain. Other philosophers have made false conclusions, but Hobbes offers truth. Hobbes believes his own reasoning definite, which he later notes is a common problem among human beings—they often think that their own reasoning is the only sound reasoning.
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The purpose of reason in words and language is not to find one total sum or absolute truth; instead, reason should begin with a myriad of sums and truths and go from there. Thus, there can be no certainty in any conclusion, as there is no certainty in any of the reason in which a conclusion is grounded. When one reckons without words, it is known as an error, and an error can be either false or absurd. A simple deception in thought is an error, but an error that is inconceivable is an absurdity. For instance, when one talks to Hobbes about “accidents of Bread in Cheese; or Immateriall Substances,” he considers such thoughts and words absurd.
Hobbes again alludes to the Catholic Church: the phrase “Immaterial Substances” is another reference to the existence of incorporeal substances taught in Catholicism, and “accidents of Bread” alludes to the Catholic practice of transubstantiation (the transformation of bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ), both of which Hobbes considers to be errors, or in other words, absurd.
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No living creature other than human beings are subject to absurdity, and no one is subject to absurdity more than philosophers. The reason for this absurdity is that philosophers do not begin with established definitions and names. Only the philosophy of geometry begins with established definitions and names, and the conclusions within geometry are therefore certain and irrefutable. The first cause of absurdity is beginning philosophy without established definitions or values, and the second is the “giving of names of bodies, to accidents; or of accidents, to bodies.” In other words, to say that faith is “infused, or inspired; when nothing can be powred, or breathed into any thing,” is absurd.
Hobbes claims that geometry is the only sound philosophy because it begins with established definitions and terms, and he attempts to ground his own philosophy in the same practice. Hobbes’s quote here is another veiled reference to Catholicism, which often claims faith or piety is “powred [poured], or breathed into” people from Heaven via the Holy Spirit. Hobbes again says such belief is absurd and not grounded in any reason whatsoever. Only objects made of matter can truly exist; thus, one’s faith cannot be “inspired” into them.
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The third cause of absurdity is the naming of “accidents” outside the body based on what occurs inside the body. For example, saying “the sound is in the ayre” is absurd. The fourth cause is the giving of universal names, such as claiming “that a living creature is Genus, or a general thing.” The next cause of absurdity is the naming of “accidents” in general, such as is done in claims that “the nature of a thing is its definition,” and the sixth cause is the use of metaphors and rhetoric when proper words will do. In other words, do not say “The Proverb says this or that” when simple speech can be used. The seventh and last cause of absurdity is naming that which signifies nothing, as in the words “transubstantiate” and “consubstantiate.”
This passage, too, is a reference to Catholicism. Transubstantiation is the conversion of bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ during the Eucharist, and consubstantiation is the Protestant belief that the bread and wine coexist with the body and blood of Christ. In Catholicism, Holy Communion (the body and blood of Christ) is that unifying substance. The idea is that in consuming the body and blood of Christ, Catholics become one under Christ, which Hobbes argues is ridiculous. A substance cannot change into another substance through incantation, he argues, and multiple bodies cannot be made one through ingesting a shared substance.
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The ability to reason is not born within each person as is the ability to sense objects and create memory, nor is reason accumulated through experience like prudence. Reason is obtained through the naming of things, established definitions, and the connections made from one name to the next. The knowledge of the consequences of one name in relation to another is known as science. Sense and memory are the knowledge of facts; however, science “is the knowledge of Consequences.” Some signs within science are certain, others are not; however, all the signs of prudence are uncertain.
Signs of prudence are always uncertain because prudence is only an assumption of what will happen based on the consequences of past events and experiences. An assumption can never be for certain, and many signs within science are based on assumptions. Thus, Hobbes argues that even science is not infallible in the way that geometry and mathematics are.
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