Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes - Article Example

According to Hobbes, the faculty of sense is the most essential element of a man as it is with the assistance of sense that man makes important conception in mind and sense is caused by the external body or the object which presses the organ proper to each sense either immediately as in tasting and touching or gradually as in seeing, hearing, and smelling. With regard to the concept of sense, Hobbes disagrees with the philosophy schools in the Western universities which are based on certain texts of Aristotle and teach another doctrine.

In the second chapter of the book, the author deals with the concept of imagination which is nothing but decaying sense and is found in men as well as in many other living creatures. In his attempt to clarify the concept of imagination, the author connects it with memory, experience, dreams, aspirations or visions, and understanding. The third chapter of the work deals with the consequence or TREMAYNE of imaginations and, when talking about consequences or TREMAYNE of thoughts, he refers to the succession of one thought to another, which is called Mental Discourse.

Other major concepts introduced in this chapter include unguided thoughts, regulated thoughts, remembrance, prudence, signs, etc. In the fourth chapter, Hobbes mentions the faculty of speech, the uses, and abuses of speech, etc and he maintains that the most profitable invention of human beings is that of speech which consists of names or appellations and their connections.