Thomas Hobbes
Thomas Hobbes
Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury, in some older texts Thomas Hobbs of Malmsbury, was an English philosopher, best known today for his work on political philosophy. His 1651 book Leviathan established social contract theory, the foundation of most later Western political philosophy...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionPhilosopher
Date of Birth5 April 1588
people income economy
It is fairer to tax people on what they extract from the economy, as roughly measured by their consumption, than to tax them on what they produce for the economy, as roughly measured by their income.
desire restless driven
Humans are driven by a perpetual and restless desire of power.
atheism facts ends
No Discourse whatsoever, can End in absolute Knowledge of Fact.
men curiosity atheism
Curiosity draws a man from consideration of the effect, to seek the cause.
silence atheism argument
Silence is sometimes an argument of Consent.
atheist atheism pills
Religions are like pills, which must be swallowed whole without chewing.
powerful people atheism
In a Democracy, look how many Demagogs that is how many powerful Orators there are with the people.
men competition praise
Competition of praise inclineth to a reverence of antiquity. For men contend with the living, not with the dead.
body corporations worms
Corporations are "worms in the body politic"
fun ifs
If nobody makes you do it, it counts as fun.
science men light
To conclude, The Light of humane minds is Perspicuous Words, but by exact definitions first snuffed, and purged from ambiguity; Reason is the pace; Encrease of Science, the way; and the Benefit of man-kind, the end.
nature heart self
The cause of Sense, is the External Body, or Object, which presseth the organ proper to each Sense, either immediately, as in theTaste and Touch; or mediately, as in Seeing, Hearing, and Smelling: which pressure, by the mediation of Nerves, and other strings, and membranes of the body, continued inwards to the Brain, and Heart, causeth there a resistance, or counter- pressure, or endeavor of the heart, to deliver it self: which endeavor because Outward, seemeth to be some matter without.
art nature spring
Nature (the Art whereby God hath made and governs the World) is by the Art of man, as in many other things, so in this also imitated, that it can make an Artificial Animal. For seeing life is but a motion of Limbs, the beginning whereof is in some principal part within; why may we not say, that all Automata (Engines that move themselves by springs and wheels as doth a watch) have an artificial life?
may causality causes
[Necessity is] the sum of all things, which being now existent, conduce and concur to the production of that action hereafter, whereof if any one thing now were wanting, the effect could not be produced. This concourse of causes, whereof every one is determined to be such as it is by a like concourse of former causes, may well be called (in respect they were all set and ordered by the eternal causes of all things, God Almighty) the decree of God.