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So that in the first place, I put for a generall inclination of all mankind, a perpetuall and restlesse desire of Power after power, that ceaseth onely in Death

So that in the first place, I put for a generall inclination of all mankind, a perpetuall and restlesse desire of Power after power, that ceaseth onely in Death. And the cause of this, is not alwayes that a man hopes for a more intensive delight, than he has already attained to; or that he cannot be content with a moderate power: but because he cannot assure the power and means to live well, which he hath present, without the acquisition of more. -- Hobbes

UglyToad 5y ago
There's more discussion of Hobbes in the book than can reasonably be quoted since it links in to themes developed across chapters, but for a taste: "I want to draw particular attention to the underlying notion of "self-interest". It is in a real sense the key to the new philosophy. The term first appears in English right around Hobbes' time, and it is, indeed, directly borrowed from interesse, the Roman law term for interest payments. When it was first introduced, most English authors seemed to view the idea that all human life can be explained as the pursuit of self-interest as a cynical, foreign, Machiavellian idea, one that sat uncomfortably with traditional English mores . By the eighteenth century, most in educated society accepted it as simple common sense."[0] Hobbes statement of some fundamental truth of human nature is both newer and less open-and-shut than we assume. [0]: https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/english/currentstudents/undergraduate/modules/fulllist/special/statesofdamage/syllabus201516/graeber-debt_the_first_5000_years.pdf https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/english/currentstudents/under... p 331