Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Leviathan, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Nature, War, and Civil Society
Power, Common-wealths, and Monarchies
Religion
Fear
Reason, Fact, and Philosophy
Summary
Analysis
According to Hobbes, there are two types of knowledge. The first kind is “Knowledge of Fact,” which is absolute and nothing but sense and memory. In the case of knowledge of fact (the kind of knowledge expected in a witness), one sees something (a fact) and remembers it. The second type of knowledge is “Knowledge of the Consequence of one Affirmation to another,” and this knowledge is conditional and includes science.
Again, Hobbes does not consider science to be hard facts; rather, science is more a collection of probabilities and likelihoods. As Hobbes’s own philosophy is rooted in fact (accepted and established definitions), he elevates his political philosophy above even that of science, which he claims can never be absolutely certain.
Themes
This collection of “Knowledge of Fact” is known as history, which can be further broken down into two types. Natural history is the recording of history that has no connection to humans, such as the history of animals, plants, and metals. Civil history is the recording of the history of human beings and their actions in common-wealths. This collection of science, which includes books that contain “Demonstrations of Consequences of one Affirmation, to another” are known as books of philosophy. The types of philosophy vary—such as natural philosophy, civil philosophy, and poetry—so Hobbes includes a table for visual reference.
Hobbes’s reference table of the many forms and branches of philosophy is comprehensive and includes every individual discipline from metaphysics to astronomy. However, only those philosophies based on mathematics and geometry are, in Hobbes’s opinion, based on fact. Therefore, Hobbes considers very few philosophies “true philosophy.” Again, as Hobbes attempts to elevate his own philosophy to “fact,” he implies that other philosophies are nothing but opinion.
Themes
