The Leviathan of Thomas Hobbes, Part III: On Freedom

The eighth chapter of Leviathan is one of the most important of the entire book, and it is one with profound implications concerning the political, even if the exoteric discussion is about intellectual virtues arising from passions and the motions of the passions.  If we recall back to Chapter 3, Hobbes defined “rational” as the regulations on our movements whereby we aim at something and proceed to it.  He also defined “irrational” as the unregulated and wild motions that aim at nothing.  Irrational is pure movement.  Rational is guided movement.

The problem is, again, there is technically no such thing as “rational” or “irrational” in Hobbes.  Everything is motion.  This should be evidently clear after having read the eighth chapter.  I will break down the exoteric reading: That which concerned itself with intellectual virtues; subsequently I will also break down the “esoteric” or implied readings from the chapter dealing with epistemology and the crisis of freedom.

So the most visible reading of the chapter is on the intellectual virtues and how these arise.  As Hobbes says, they arise from the motion of the passions.  Great motion leads to greater experiences which allow for the accruement of the intellectual virtues that come with said experiences.  So everything is learned a posteriori according to Hobbes.  That is, all knowledge comes from experience.

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