Leviathan · Chapter
Of the Difference of Manners explained
Hobbes defines 'manners' as the qualities of mankind that affect their living together in peace and unity, rather than mere social decorum.
What happens
Hobbes defines 'manners' as the qualities of mankind that affect their living together in peace and unity, rather than mere social decorum. He argues that felicity is not a final end but a continual progress of desire, driven by a perpetual and restless desire for power that ceases only in death. He examines how various passions, such as competition, fear, vainglory, and ignorance, dispose men to different actions—some inclining them to obey a common power, others to stir up sedition and war. The chapter also explores how differences in knowledge and opinion lead to disputes over right and wrong, and how ignorance of causes fosters credulity, lying, and a tendency to attribute events to immediate causes.
Themes in this chapter
Human Nature and Passions
Hobbes examines how passions such as competition, fear, vainglory, and curiosity dispose men to various actions, including obedience or sedition, forming the basis of his psychological analysis.
Power and Honor
The chapter centers on the 'restless desire of power after power' as a general inclination of mankind, linking power to honor, ambition, and the dynamics of social and political life.
Liberty and Obligation
Hobbes discusses how fear of death and desire for ease dispose men to obey a common power, while also exploring the obligations arising from benefits and the hateful nature of unrequitable obligation.
Key passages
“I put for a general inclination of all mankind, a perpetual and restless desire of power after power, that ceaseth only in death.”
Hobbes asserts that all humans have an unending drive to acquire more power, which only ends with death.
This is a core statement of Hobbes's view of human motivation, linking desire for power to the pursuit of felicity.
“For benefits oblige, and obligation is thraldom; and unrequitable obligation perpetual thraldom; which is to one's equal, hateful.”
Receiving benefits creates a sense of obligation that feels like bondage, especially when the debt cannot be repaid, leading to hatred toward the benefactor.
Hobbes explores the psychological effects of obligation, distinguishing between obligations to equals and superiors.
“Ignorance of the causes, and original constitution of right, equity, law, and justice, disposeth a man to make custom and example the rule of his actions.”
Those who do not understand the foundations of justice and law tend to rely on custom and precedent as their guide for behavior.
Hobbes criticizes the reliance on custom over reason, linking it to disputes over right and wrong.