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Persona #128

Thomas Hobbes

1588–1679
English philosopher, political theorist, founder of modern political philosophy

The Leviathan — the state of nature as war of all against all, sovereignty as the only escape

Attribute Fingerprint

Rows where personas disagree are highlighted in gold. The full ontology grid (32 attributes) is shown.

Attribute Thomas Hobbes
Time · Extent Infinite
Time · Ontological Status Substantival
Time · Grain Continuous
Time · Freedom Deterministic
Time · Traversability Linear
Time · Dimensionality One
Time · Direction Uni-directional
Space · Extent Infinite
Space · Ontological Status Substantival
Space · Curvature Flat
Space · Dimensionality Three
Space · Locality Local
Matter · Extent Finite
Matter · Ontological Status Substantival
Matter · Conservation Conserved
Matter · Dimensionality Three
Matter · Locality Local
Observer · Time Instance Single
Observer · Space Instance Single
Observer · Knowledge Extent Immediate
Observer · Knowledge Retainment Total
Observer · Physicality Embodied
Observer · Agency Passive
Observer · Number Plural
Observer · Metaphysical Agency None
Observer · Moral Authority Constructed
Observer · Theological Method N/A
Energy · Extent Finite
Energy · Ontological Status Substantival
Energy · Conservation Conserved
Energy · Dispersibility Irreversible
Information · Ontological Status Substantival
Information · Cosmic Conservation Conserved
Information · Personal Conservation Non-conserved
Information · Granularity Continuous

Dimension-by-Dimension Evidence

What each persona's writings reveal about their stance on each of the six dimensions.

Time

Thomas Hobbes

Substantival, infinite, deterministic. Hobbes is a thoroughgoing causal determinist.

Space

Thomas Hobbes

Substantival, three-dimensional, local — the Galilean-Cartesian mechanical philosophy of the 17th century.

Matter

Thomas Hobbes

Substantival, conserved. Everything is body; the soul itself is a physical process.

Observer

Thomas Hobbes

A single embodied physical organism whose thought is brain motion. Passive in the technical compatibilist sense — actions follow from causes, will is determined. Constructed moral authority — Right and Wrong are products of sovereign authority, not natural facts.

Energy

Thomas Hobbes

Conventional 17th-c. mechanical philosophy.

Information

Thomas Hobbes

Cosmic conserved; personal-identity non-conserved — Hobbes was widely (and probably correctly) read as denying the natural immortality of the soul.

Internal Tensions

Where each persona's working synthesis strains against itself.

Thomas Hobbes

Hobbes' relation to Christianity was contested in his lifetime and remains so. Leviathan's Parts III and IV develop a substantial Christian theology, but on materialist premises (God is a corporeal Spirit; the soul dies with the body and is resurrected miraculously; ecclesiastical authority belongs to the civil sovereign). Whether this is sincere theology or strategic accommodation has been debated since 1651; either way, Hobbes' political legacy survived his theological reputation, and modern political theory is unimaginable without his framework.