Winston C.

Quilaton
Emmanuel Servants of the Holy Trinity (ESHT)
2nd Year Philosophy
Epistemology
Dr. Mark Edwin T. Aspra

Hobbes' Theory of Knowledge

Influence of Geometry upon Hobbes's Thought

1. What was Hobbe’s interest during the rising tide of scientific discovery?
Caught up in the growing tide of scientific exploration, he was greatly fascinated by science's
accuracy and, most importantly, the certainty of scientific knowledge. Hobbes attempted to
reinterpret the whole gamut of science in line with this single approach, with a razor-sharp intellect
and a fervor that forced him to sensationalize the possibilities of his method of mathematics,
primarily geometry as the key to the study of nature (which came from his experience with Euclid).
2. How could he gain exact knowledge?
He believed that no matter what the subject of research was, he could obtain exact knowledge
through observation and deductive reasoning from observational axioms. He then embarked on
an ambitious project which was to recast the study of physical nature, human nature, and society
using the same approach throughout. De Cive (The Citizen) was published in 1642, De Corpore
(Concerning Body) in 1655z, and De Homine (Concerning Man) in 1658. In the end, it was his
political philosophy that made him popular, and it was here that he used rigorous logic and the
scientific method to achieve surprising new findings.
3. What was Hobbes's political theory dependent upon?
Hobbes's political philosophy rests very much upon his particular theory of knowledge and his
mathematical model of reality. These elements of his theory must be understood in depth as the
foundation for his views on political community.

Bodies in Motion: The Object of Thought

4. What are the three major types of bodies that philosophy concerns primarily?
Philosophy is mainly concerned with the causes and features of three major types of bodies:
physical bodies (such as stones), human body, and body politic. There is one primary characteristic
that all bodies have, and it is this characteristic alone that allows us to grasp how they come to be
and do what they do. This characteristic is called motion, the key concept in Hobbes's thought.
5. What is motion?
"Motion," Hobbes notes, "is a continual relinquishing of one place and acquiring of another."
Anything that moves changes its location, and equally, anything that is made to move changes its
location. If something is at rest, it will remain so until something pushes it. Similarly, until it is
stopped by another body, a moving body appears to keep moving. This account seems to be limited
to locomotion.
6. Is motion only applicable to locomotion?
Since he will have to describe all of reality and all phenomena in terms of moving bodies, motion
is not just locomotion in the typical sense, but also what we call the mechanism of change. Things
change when something about them has been moved by something else, and this applies to both
physical and mental change.
7. What are the two kinds of motion?
Hobbes distinguishes between two types of motion that are unique to animals or humans, namely
(1) vital motions and (2) voluntary motions. Vital movements begin with the birth process and
continue throughout life, such as excretion and breathing, where no imagination is needed.
Voluntary motions, such as walking and talking, are first and foremost mental movements, as they
are often dependent on a prior thinking about when, how, and what. Imagination is the origin of
voluntary actions, but imagination and the human activity known as thought can also be explained
as effects of prior causes or as outcomes of prior motions.

Mechanical View of Human Thought

8. How does the human mind works?
The human mind works in a variety of ways, including perception, imagination, memory, to
thinking.
9. Are all these types of mental activity fundamentally the same?
Since they are just motions in our minds, all of these modes of mental activity are fundamentally
the same. Hobbes was especially aware of the similarities between perception, imagination, and
memory. Perception, or our ability to sense things, is our fundamental mental act, and the others
are "derived from that original." The entire form and mechanism of human thought is explained in
terms of bodies in motion, and differences of mental activity are accounted for by locating each
form of mental act in a definable causal chain.
10. Where does thought process begins?
The thought process begins as an external body moves and induces an inward motion, such as
when we see a cat—seeing the cat is perception or sensation.

11. What is phantasm?

When we look at something, we see what Hobbes referred to as a phantasm. A phantasm is an
image inside us that is created by something outside of us. When we see a black cat, we see two
phantasms: the black and the cat—a quality and an object—and both represent the different ways
we view motion produced by the body outside of us.
12. What is imagination?
Hobbes defines imagination as the retention of an image within us after the object has been
removed. The initial impact of an external entity on us produces not just our immediate sensation
but also longer-lasting results, "for after the object is removed, or the eye shut, we still retain an
image of the thing seen, though more obscure than when we see it." However, imagination a is a
lingering or a decaying sensation as we demonstrate that the sense is fading; we call this memory.
13. Why is thinking quite different from sensation and memory?
In sensation, the sequence of images in our minds is dictated by what is going on around us, while
in thinking, we seem to bring ideas together as we like.
14. How can thinking be in the same terms with sensation?
Using his mechanical model, Hobbes explained thinking in the same terms as he used in his
account of sensation, implying that thinking is a variation of sensation for him. Ideas in thought
follow each other when they first preceded each other in sensation.
15. Is there a case that mechanism of thought not perfect?
The mechanism of thought is not perfect when people are always thinking in ways that do not
perfectly mirror their previous sensations. Hobbes was mindful of this, but he attempted to justify
also the fragmented sequences as invasions of more powerful stimuli into the flow of imagination
and memory. He wished to create the position that nothing occurs in thinking that cannot be
explained by sensation and memory.
16. What is the difference between the mind of an animal and the mind of a human being?
Even though, both have sensation and memory, there is a distinction between an animal's mind
and a human's mind. Human's ability to form signs or names to mark our sensations separates
them. We can remember our sensations by using these names. Furthermore, science and
philosophy are possible due to the human ability to shape terms and sentences.
17. What are the two forms of knowledge?
Knowledge can be classified into two forms: knowledge of fact and knowledge of consequences.
Knowledge of fact is actually a memory of previous occurrences. Knowledge of consequences, on
one hand, can be hypothetical or conditional, but it is also dependent on experience, such that, if
A is true, then B must also be true.

18. How is scientific knowledge or philosophy possible?

Scientific knowledge, or philosophy in general, is only conceivable when humans have the ability
to use words and speech. Despite Hobbes' description of signs and names as terms taken at leisure
to act as a symbol, these words reflect our experiences. Words and sentences refer to how things
really behave. Reasoning with words is therefore not the same as playing with words, since after
the context of words is defined, such implications follow with their use, mirroring the fact that our
imagination helps us remember.
19. How can we prove that a human is a living creature?
We may prove that a human is a living creature for two reasons. For first, the concept of living is
already incorporated into the term "human." Second, the term "human" refers to the sensation we
get when we see a real human being. The relationships between words are dependent on the
relationships between the events for which the words serve as representations.
20. How we can know things?
Because of his empiricism, he argued that we can know things based on our experiences of such
things. We can learn about all cats based on what we've seen about some of them.