MILTON: Areopagitica

MILTON: Areopagitica

• The epigraph is from Euripides’ play, The Suppliants. The quote asserts that true Liberty consists of freedom of speech.

HOBBES: Leviathan [Part I Ch. 11-16]

Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes

Chapter 11 – Of the Difference of Manners

• There is neither an ultimate goal nor greatest good. Happiness consists in the continual progress from one desire to another. Happiness is not to enjoy an object of desire once, but to assure the satisfaction of future desires.

HOBBES: Leviathan [Part I Ch. 6-10]

Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes

Chapter 6 – Of the Interior Beginnings of Voluntary Motions, Commonly Called the Passions; and the Speeches by which they are Expressed

• There are to sorts of motion particular to animals: 1) the vital motions which are continued without interruption through the entire life of the animal – pulse, breathing, nutrition, etc.; 2) voluntary motion – to speak or move our limbs according to our imagination; for all voluntary motions have their origin in the mind.

HOBBES: Leviathan [Part I Intro-Ch.5]

Introduction

• Man can create an artificial animal – a watch. There is no difference between man and a watch. God made man, who is moved by the heart, nerves, and joints. Man made a watch, which is moved by springs and wheels.

MARCUS AURELIUS: Meditations [Books IX-XII]

Book IX

• He who acts unjustly acts impiously towards the universal will. He who pursues pleasure as good, and avoids pain as evil is guilty of impiety; for that man must of necessity find fault with nature because often the bad receive pleasure and the good receive pain.