Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes, Chapter 11 summary
Chapter 11 of 65 · Part 1: Of Man · 11 min to read the chapter
In Chapter 11, the argument defines manners as qualities affecting peaceful life together and explains how continuing desire drives people to seek power, compete, or accept protection. It connects differences in conduct to passions and knowledge, then traces religious belief to inquiry about causes and fear of unknown powers.
What happens
- The argument defines happiness as continuing desire and explains why securing present advantages requires seeking further power.
- Competition encourages conflict, while comfort, fear of injury, and peaceful learning encourage obedience to a shared authority.
- Praise, benefits, injuries, fear, vanity, ambition, and timidity produce different patterns of conduct.
- Ignorance encourages misplaced trust, confused language, reliance on custom, resistance to government, and belief in falsehoods.
- Concern about the future encourages inquiry into causes, which leads toward belief in an eternal God.
- Fear of unknown powers produces varied religious beliefs, which some people shape into instruments of government.
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Why does the desire for knowledge encourage obedience to a common power?
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