"[T]here is no doubt, if the true doctrine concerning the law of nature, and the properties of a body politic, and the nature of law in general, were perspicuously set down, and taught in the Universities, but that young men, who come thither void of prejudice, and whose minds are yet as white paper, capable of any instruction, would more easily receive the same, and afterward teach it to the people, both in books and otherwise, than now they do the contrary."
— Hobbes, Thomas (1588-1679)
Author
Work Title
Date
MS. 1640, 1650
Metaphor
"[T]here is no doubt, if the true doctrine concerning the law of nature, and the properties of a body politic, and the nature of law in general, were perspicuously set down, and taught in the Universities, but that young men, who come thither void of prejudice, and whose minds are yet as white paper, capable of any instruction, would more easily receive the same, and afterward teach it to the people, both in books and otherwise, than now they do the contrary."
Metaphor in Context
8. Another thing necessary, is the rooting out from the consciences of men all those opinions which seem to justify, and give pretence of right to rebellious actions; such as are: the opinion, that a man can do nothing lawfully against his private conscience; that they who have the sovereignty, are subject to the civil laws; that there is any authority of subjects, whose negative may hinder the affirmative of the sovereign power; that any subject hath a propriety distinct from the dominion of the commonwealth; that there is a body of the people without him or them that have the sovereign power; and that any lawful sovereign may be resisted under the name of a tyrant; which opinions are they, which, Part II. chap. 8, sect. 5-10, have been declared to dispose men to rebellion. And because opinions which are gotten by education, and in length of time are made habitual, cannot be taken away by force, and upon the sudden: they must therefore be taken away also, by time and education. And seeing the said opinions have proceeded from private and public teaching, and those teachers have received them from grounds and principles, which they have learned in the Universities, from the doctrine of Aristotle, and others (who have delivered nothing concerning morality and policy demonstratively; but being passionately addicted to popular government, have insinuated their opinions, by eloquent sophistry): there is no doubt, if the true doctrine concerning the law of nature, and the properties of a body politic, and the nature of law in general, were perspicuously set down, and taught in the Universities, but that young men, who come thither void of prejudice, and whose minds are yet as white paper, capable of any instruction, would more easily receive the same, and afterward teach it to the people, both in books and otherwise, than now they do the contrary.
(II.ix.8, p. 183)
(II.ix.8, p. 183)
Categories
Provenance
Reading Neal Wood's "Tabula Rasa, Social Environmentalism, and the 'English Paradigm'." Journal of the History of Ideas 53:4 (1992): 647-68.p. 658.
Citation
Wood cites Hobbes, The Elements of Law, Natural and Politic, ed. Ferdinand Tönnies, introduction by M.M. Goldsmith. 2nd edition. London, 1969. 183-4.
Circulates in manuscript in 1640. First published in 1650, although inaccurately, in two parts: Human Nature and De Corpore Politico. First accurate edition is Tönnies of 1889. See Deborah Baumgold's article on "The composition of Hobbe's Elements of Law." History of Political Thought, 25:1 (2004): 16-43, p. 28.
Circulates in manuscript in 1640. First published in 1650, although inaccurately, in two parts: Human Nature and De Corpore Politico. First accurate edition is Tönnies of 1889. See Deborah Baumgold's article on "The composition of Hobbe's Elements of Law." History of Political Thought, 25:1 (2004): 16-43, p. 28.
Theme
Blank Slate
Date of Entry
06/22/2005
Date of Review
04/15/2012
