Leviathan: Chapter 2 Summary & Analysis

Most people believe that objects at rest stay at rest until something stirs them, but getting people to believe that an object in motion is eternally in motion unless something stops it is another matter. According to Hobbes, all people measure things and people by themselves, and they have come to learn that if they themselves are in motion, they are subject to pain and exhaustion. The “Schooles” say that an object falls down because it desires rest and is seeking a place that is most agreeable; however, Hobbes sees motion in a different way. 

According to Hobbes, when a body is in motion, it moves eternally, and whatever stops a body in motion cannot do so instantly. Movement is extinguished in degrees over time, as is seen in waves that continue to roll after the wind stops. The same can be said for humankind’s thoughts; when an object is removed, an image—albeit an obscured one—is retained in the mind. This retained image is called imagination, known to the Greeks as “Fancy” that in turn signifies “apparence.” Imagination, Hobbes argues, “is nothing but decaying sense,” and it is found in all humans and other creatures, both sleeping and awake.   

The decaying of senses in humans is not a decay of motion as much as it is “an obscuring of it.” When the past is imagined, it is vague and weak, and the object perceived is made weaker and more obscure as more time passes. The decay of imagination (meaning when the sense of an object begins to fade and pass) is called memory. Memory and imagination are the same thing, but they have different names and different considerations. Multiple memories of many things is called experience, whereas imagination is only those things a person has previously perceived through sense organs. Imagination can be broken down into two types: simple imagination and compounded imagination. For example, simple imagination is thinking about a person or a horse one has previously seen. Compounded imagination, on the other hand, is joining that same person and horse into a centaur.

Imagination during sleep are dreams, and dreams are constituted by previous perceptions, either totally or in part. Dreams vary in the people, places, objects, and actions they display, and they are often incomprehensible. As Hobbes often recognizes the ridiculousness of his dreams while awake and never dreams of how bizarre waking thoughts can be, he is satisfied that he knows he is not dreaming while awake. Nor does he think himself awake while dreaming. Different moods cause different dreams. Fearful dreams come from fearful objects, and emotions felt in dreams can cause an actual response in the human body, as do dreams of kindness or desire. 

Dreams can be difficult to discern if one is not aware they have slept, as can happen to someone who dozes off in a chair without going through the nighttime rituals of getting ready for bed. This inability to differentiate dreams from vision or other senses came from religions of the past that worshipped satyrs and nymphs and believed in fairies and witches. Witchcraft isn’t true power, Hobbes claims, although witches are rightly punished. A witch believes she has power and intends to do harm; thus, she should be punished. As for ghosts, Hobbes maintains ghosts are taught to “keep in credit the use of Exorcisme, of Crosses, of holy Water, and other such inventions of Ghostly men.”

There is no doubt, Hobbes argues, that God has the power to make an apparition appear, but to assume that God has done so as often as humankind claims is silly. A wise person does not give credence to such absurdities, and if such superstitions (which ambitious people often use to exploit others) were removed from society, humans “would be much more fitted than they are for civill Obedience.” The “Schooles,” however, perpetuate such beliefs. Some philosophers say imagination rises without cause, and some think good thoughts are inspired by God and bad thoughts are inspired by the Devil. They argue that “the Senses receive the Species of things,” which is delivered to the senses, to the Fancy, and to the memory, but there is very little understanding to be had in the convoluted theories of the “Schooles.”