Thomas Hobbes

Abstract

Language lies at the heart of Hobbes’ thinking about human nature and politics. He adopted a semiotic approach to language, which is to say that he considered words as signs, and signs are determined by their causal consequences. Words are signs for thoughts because they regularly cause such thoughts in listeners, and are caused by such thoughts in speakers; and thoughts are themselves signs for things for analogous reasons. Central to this is settling on the proper definitions of words, or identifying the correct thoughts to be associated with each word. For Hobbes, definitions are the heart of reason and science. In the first selection, from Leviathan, the case of “spirit” or “incorporeal substance” is analyzed and presented as a failed definition. The second selection, from Hobbes’ Elements of Philosophy, adds to the previous discussion of names an extensive discussion of propositions, propositional meaning in terms of use, and truth and entailment conditions.

Text from Leviathan excerpted from: Curley, E. ed. 1994. Hobbes: Leviathan. Indianapolis: Hackett.

Text from Elements of Philosophy excerpted from: Hungerland, Isabel C. and George R. Vick. eds. 1981. Thomas Hobbes: Computatio sive Logica. Trans. A. Martinich. New York: Abaris Books.