Leviathan: Chapter 11 Summary & Analysis

Next, Hobbes discusses manners, by which he does not mean behaving in an appropriate way, like saluting others or practicing good hygiene. Instead, manners are the qualities people possess that allow them to live in peace and unity with others in a continual search of happiness. Happiness, or felicity, is progress to some desired end; thus, people’s voluntary actions tend to be focused on obtaining that which will make their life content. These actions differ only in the passions they arise from and the knowledge and opinions that produce each passion.

According to Hobbes, each person has a desire for power that ceases only in death, and wealth and honor through the killing or subduing of another is one way to obtain such power. However, Hobbes argues, “Desire of Ease, and sensual Delight” lead people to obey a common power in the form of civil obedience. Fear of death and wounds also lead people to civil obedience, as does a desire for knowledge and peace.

Those with a strong opinion of their wisdom who impose that wisdom on the government of a common-wealth are said to have ambition, and articulate people have a tendency to have ambition. Timidity disposes one to indecision, but eloquence implies wisdom and kindness. An ignorance of science and the causes of events can lead one to rely too much on other people’s perspectives, because such people lack their own opinions. Ignorance, or a complete lack of understanding, can cause one to put trust in nonsense.     

Ignorance of the causes and structure of rights and laws disposes a person to accepting custom and example as the rule, and they tend to think an act is unjust just because it is customary to punish such actions. Likewise, those who are ignorant of the cause and structure of rights and laws tend to believe an action is just simply because lawyers think so. “Right and Wrong is perpetually disputed,” Hobbes says, “both by the Pen and the Sword.” Those who are ignorant of distant causes believe all events are “instrumental,” as such causes are the only causes they perceive. Living in ignorance of natural causes makes a person gullible, and they are apt to believe any number of impossibilities.

Anxiety over future events can give a person the desire to know about the natural causes of things, as can curiosity and a love of knowledge. Still, Hobbes argues that few people question the causes of things because of the fear that comes from ignorance itself and the “severall kinds of Powers Invisible” that have created numerous gods to fear. This fear of invisible things is called religion, and those who observe religion have formed it into laws. Such laws are infused with personal opinion and are used to govern others and obtain power.