Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes, Chapter 9 summary
Chapter 9 of 65 · Part 1: Of Man · 3 min to read the chapter
In Chapter 9, Hobbes distinguishes knowledge gained through sense and memory from science, which traces conditional consequences between statements, and separates their records into history and philosophy. He then organizes the sciences by subject, distinguishing natural bodies from political bodies and identifying branches concerned with human conduct, speech, sovereignty, and subjects.
What happens
- Knowledge of facts rests on sense and memory, while science concerns conditional consequences between statements.
- History records facts, dividing into natural events independent of human choice and voluntary human actions in commonwealths.
- Books of philosophy record demonstrations, and their subjects determine the divisions of science.
- Natural philosophy includes quantity, motion, physical qualities, animal senses, human passions, and speech.
- Civil philosophy examines how establishing commonwealths determines the rights and duties of sovereigns and subjects.
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What distinguishes civil history from natural history?
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