Leviathan · Chapter
III: Of the Consequence or Train of Imaginations explained
Hobbes explores the nature of mental discourse, distinguishing between unguided trains of thought and regulated sequences directed by desire or design.
What happens
Hobbes explores the nature of mental discourse, distinguishing between unguided trains of thought and regulated sequences directed by desire or design. He examines how memory, experience, and prudence shape our ability to infer causes and effects, and argues that all conceptions are finite and derived from sense, leading to the conclusion that the infinite is inconceivable and that God is honored rather than comprehended.
Themes in this chapter
Human Nature and Passions
Hobbes analyzes how desire and fear govern the train of thoughts, distinguishing human curiosity from animal passions.
State of Nature and Social Contract
The discussion of prudence and experience as the basis for foresight relates to the natural condition of mankind.
Characters to notice
- Jesus Christ
Mentioned in the example of the train of thought from the civil war to the delivering up of Christ and the thirty pieces of silver.
- Judas Iscariot
Implicitly referenced in the train of thought about the thirty pence, the price of betrayal.
Key passages
“The discourse of the mind, when it is governed by design, is nothing but 'seeking,' or the faculty of invention, which the Latins called sagacitas, and solertia; a hunting out of the causes, of some effect, present or past; or of the effects, of some present or past cause.”
When the mind is directed by a purpose, its activity is essentially a search—an inventive process of tracing causes from effects or effects from causes.
Hobbes defines regulated mental discourse as a form of inquiry or invention.
“The 'present' only has a being in nature; things 'past' have a being in the memory only, but things to 'come' have no being at all; the 'future' being but a fiction of the mind, applying the sequels of actions past, to the actions that are present.”
Only the present truly exists; the past exists only in memory, and the future is a mental construct based on past experience.
Hobbes emphasizes the epistemological limits of human knowledge regarding time.
“No man can have in his mind an image of infinite magnitude; nor conceive infinite swiftness, infinite time, or infinite force, or infinite power.”
The human mind cannot form an image or conception of anything infinite, such as infinite size, speed, duration, or power.
Hobbes argues that all ideas are finite and derived from sensory experience.