Thomas Hobbes: Leviathan: Indice del testo inglese

TABLE OF CONTENTS

  Dedica

To  Francis Godolphin

Introduction

PART I

OF MAN

Introduction

    Introduction.


    CHAPTER I: OF SENSE
    CHAPTER II: OF IMAGINATION
    CHAPTER III: OF THE CONSEQUENCE OR TRAIN OF IMAGINATIONS
    CHAPTER IV: OF SPEECH
    CHAPTER V: OF REASON AND SCIENCE
    CHAPTER VI: OF THE INTERIOR BEGINNINGS OF VOLUNTARY MOTIONS, COMMONLY CALLED THE PASSIONS; AND THE SPEECHES BY WHICH THEY ARE EXPRESSED
    CHAPTER VII: OF THE ENDS OR RESOLUTIONS OF DISCOURSE
    CHAPTER VIII: OF THE VIRTUES COMMONLY CALLED INTELLECTUAL; AND THEIR CONTRARY DEFECTS
    CHAPTER IX: OF THE SEVERAL SUBJECTS OF KNOWLEDGE
    CHAPTER X: OF POWER, WORTH, DIGNITY, HONOUR AND WORTHINESS
    CHAPTER XI: OF THE DIFFERENCE OF MANNERS
    CHAPTER XII: OF RELIGION
    CHAPTER XIII: OF THE NATURAL CONDITION OF MANKIND AS CONCERNING THEIR FELICITY AND MISERY
    CHAPTER XIV: OF THE FIRST AND SECOND NATURAL LAWS, AND OF CONTRACTS
    CHAPTER XV: OF OTHER LAWS OF NATURE
    CHAPTER XVI: OF PERSONS, AUTHORS, AND THINGS PERSONATED
    THE SECOND PART: OF COMMONWEALTH
    CHAPTER XVII: OF THE CAUSES, GENERATION, AND DEFINITION OF A COMMONWEALTH
    CHAPTER XVIII: OF THE RIGHTS OF SOVEREIGNS BY INSTITUTION
    CHAPTER XIX: OF THE SEVERAL KINDS OF COMMONWEALTH BY INSTITUTION, AND OF SUCCESSION TO THE SOVEREIGN POWER
    CHAPTER XX: OF DOMINION PATERNAL AND DESPOTICAL
    CHAPTER XXI: OF THE LIBERTY OF SUBJECTS
    CHAPTER XXII: OF SYSTEMS SUBJECT POLITICAL AND PRIVATE
    CHAPTER XXIII: OF THE PUBLIC MINISTERS OF SOVEREIGN POWER
    CHAPTER XXIV: OF THE NUTRITION AND PROCREATION OF A COMMONWEALTH
    CHAPTER XXV: OF COUNSEL
    CHAPTER XXVI: OF CIVIL LAWS
    CHAPTER XXVII: OF CRIMES, EXCUSES, AND EXTENUATIONS
    CHAPTER XXVIII: OF PUNISHMENTS AND REWARDS
    CHAPTER XXIX: OF THOSE THINGS THAT WEAKEN OR TEND TO THE DISSOLUTION OF A COMMONWEALTH
    CHAPTER XXX: OF THE OFFICE OF THE SOVEREIGN REPRESENTATIVE
    CHAPTER XXXI: OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD BY NATURE
    THE THIRD PART: OF A CHRISTIAN COMMONWEALTH
    CHAPTER XXXII: OF THE PRINCIPLES OF CHRISTIAN POLITICS
    CHAPTER XXXIII: OF THE NUMBER, ANTIQUITY, SCOPE, AUTHORITY, AND INTERPRETERS OF THE BOOKS OF HOLY SCRIPTURE
    CHAPTER XXXIV: OF THE SIGNIFICATION OF SPIRIT, ANGEL, AND INSPIRATION IN THE BOOKS OF HOLY SCRIPTURE
    CHAPTER XXXV: OF THE SIGNIFICATION IN SCRIPTURE OF KINGDOM OF GOD, OF HOLY, SACRED, AND SACRAMENT
    CHAPTER XXXVI: OF THE WORD OF GOD, AND OF PROPHETS
    CHAPTER XXXVII: OF MIRACLES AND THEIR USE
    CHAPTER XXXVIII: OF THE SIGNIFICATION IN SCRIPTURE OF ETERNAL LIFE, HELL, SALVATION, THE WORLD TO COME, AND REDEMPTION
    CHAPTER XXXIX: OF THE SIGNIFICATION IN SCRIPTURE OF THE WORD CHURCH
    CHAPTER XL: OF THE RIGHTS OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD, IN ABRAHAM, MOSES, THE HIGH PRIESTS, AND THE KINGS OF JUDAH
    CHAPTER XLI: OF THE OFFICE OF OUR BLESSED SAVIOUR
    CHAPTER XLII: OF POWER ECCLESIASTICAL
    CHAPTER XLIII: OF WHAT IS NECESSARY FOR A MAN'S RECEPTION INTO THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN
    CHAPTER XLIV: OF SPIRITUAL DARKNESS FROM MISINTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE
    CHAPTER XLV: OF DEMONOLOGY AND OTHER RELICS OF THE RELIGION OF THE GENTILES
    CHAPTER XLVI: OF DARKNESS FROM VAIN PHILOSOPHY AND FABULOUS TRADITIONS
    CHAPTER XLVII: OF THE BENEFIT THAT PROCEEDETH FROM SUCH DARKNESS, AND TO WHOM IT ACCRUETH
    A REVIEW AND CONCLUSION

Thomas Hobbes: Leviathan: 1. To Francis Godolphin

Index / 0 ↔ 2 / Lessico

Libero adattamento per finalità autodidattiche di testi e registrazioni di pubblico dominio tratti da Librivox. Acoustical liberation of books in the public domain. Opere di Thomas Hobbes. Nostra numerazione del Brano: 1. Registrazione da Librivox.org. Serie: Leviathan. Books I and II/00. Reader: Carl Manchster.   Download (8.28 minuti) del singolo brano oppure in successione su Internet Archive Page,  a “Introduction” (n. 1).  Etext: The Leviathan.  - Dizionari: Dicios; Sansoni; Word-reference. Links: University of Adelaide.

TO MY MOST HONOR'D FRIEND

 Mr. FRANCIS GODOLPHIN of GODOLPHIN

HONOR'D SIR.

Francis Godolphin (1605-1667)

Your most worthy Brother Mr SIDNEY GODOLPHIN, when he lived, was pleas'd to think my studies something, and otherwise to oblige me, as you know, with reall testimonies of his good opinion, great in themselves, and the greater for the worthinesse of his person. For there is not any vertue that disposeth a man, either to the service of God, or to the service of his Country, to Civill Society, or private Friendship, that did not manifestly appear in his conversation, not as acquired by necessity, or affected upon occasion, but inhaerent, and shining in a generous constitution of his nature. Therefore in honour and gratitude to him, and with devotion to your selfe, I humbly Dedicate unto you this my discourse of Common-wealth. I know not how the world will receive it, nor how it may reflect on those that shall seem to favour it. For in a way beset with those that contend on one side for too great Liberty, and on the other side for too much Authority, 'tis hard to passe between the points of both unwounded. But yet, me thinks, the endeavour to advance the Civill Power, should not be by the Civill Power condemned; nor private men, by reprehending it, declare they think that Power too great. Besides, I speak not of the men, but (in the Abstract) of the Seat of Power, (like to those simple and unpartiall creatures in the Roman Capitol, that with their noyse defended those within it, not because they were they, but there) offending none, I think, but those without, or such within (if there be any such) as favour them. That which perhaps may most offend, are certain Texts of Holy Scripture, alledged by me to other purpose than ordinarily they use to be by others. But I have done it with due submission, and also (in order to my Subject) necessarily; for they are the Outworks of the Enemy, from whence they impugne the Civill Power. If notwithstanding this, you find my labour generally decryed, you may be pleased to excuse your selfe, and say that I am a man that love my own opinions, and think all true I say, that I honoured your Brother, and honour you, and have presum'd on that, to assume the Title (without your knowledge) of being, as I am,

Sir,

Your most humble, and most obedient servant,

 Thomas Hobbes.

Paris APRILL 15/25 1651.

INTRODUCTION

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? For what is the heart, but a spring; and the nerves, but so many strings; and the joints, but so many wheels, giving motion to the whole body, such as was intended by the Artificer? Art goes yet further, imitating that rational and most excellent work of Nature, man. For by art is created that great LEVIATHAN called a COMMONWEALTH, or STATE (in Latin, CIVITAS), which is but an artificial man, though of greater stature and strength than the natural, for whose protection and defence it was intended; and in which the sovereignty is an artificial soul, as giving life and motion to the whole body; the magistrates and other officers of judicature and execution, artificial joints; reward and punishment (by which fastened to the seat of the sovereignty, every joint and member is moved to perform his duty) are the nerves, that do the same in the body natural; the wealth and riches of all the particular members are the strength; salus populi (the people's safety) its business; counsellors, by whom all things needful for it to know are suggested unto it, are the memory; equity and laws, an artificial reason and will; concord, health; sedition, sickness; and civil war, death. Lastly, the pacts and covenants, by which the parts of this body politic were at first made, set together, and united, resemble that fiat, or the Let us make man, pronounced by God in the Creation.

To describe the nature of this artificial man, I will consider * First, the matter thereof, and the artificer; both which is man. * Secondly, how, and by what covenants it is made; what are the rights and just power or authority of a sovereign; and what it is that preserveth and dissolveth it. * Thirdly, what is a Christian Commonwealth. * Lastly, what is the Kingdom of Darkness.

Concerning the first, there is a saying much usurped of late, that wisdom is acquired, not by reading of books, but of men. Consequently whereunto, those persons, that for the most part can give no other proof of being wise, take great delight to show what they think they have read in men, by uncharitable censures of one another behind their backs. But there is another saying not of late understood, by which they might learn truly to read one another, if they would take the pains; and that is, Nosce teipsum, Read thyself: which was not meant, as it is now used, to countenance either the barbarous state of men in power towards their inferiors, or to encourage men of low degree to a saucy behaviour towards their betters; but to teach us that for the similitude of the thoughts and passions of one man, to the thoughts and passions of another, whosoever looketh into himself and considereth what he doth when he does think, opine, reason, hope, fear, etc., and upon what grounds; he shall thereby read and know what are the thoughts and passions of all other men upon the like occasions. I say the similitude of passions, which are the same in all men,- desire, fear, hope, etc.; not the similitude of the objects of the passions, which are the things desired, feared, hoped, etc.: for these the constitution individual, and particular education, do so vary, and they are so easy to be kept from our knowledge, that the characters of man's heart, blotted and confounded as they are with dissembling, lying, counterfeiting, and erroneous doctrines, are legible only to him that searcheth hearts. And though by men's actions we do discover their design sometimes; yet to do it without comparing them with our own, and distinguishing all circumstances by which the case may come to be altered, is to decipher without a key, and be for the most part deceived, by too much trust or by too much diffidence, as he that reads is himself a good or evil man.

But let one man read another by his actions never so perfectly, it serves him only with his acquaintance, which are but few. He that is to govern a whole nation must read in himself, not this, or that particular man; but mankind: which though it be hard to do, harder than to learn any language or science; yet, when I shall have set down my own reading orderly and perspicuously, the pains left another will be only to consider if he also find not the same in himself. For this kind of doctrine admitteth no other demonstration.

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