The ‘Lust of the Mind’: Curiosity in Hobbes’ Leviathan

Abstract

homas Hobbes includes "curiosity" to an extended catalogue of the passions that he principally distinguishes as beneficial or detrimental to human kind. In this light curiosity holds up a prominent position in his thought which he considers as the motivating factor that leads people to discover new worlds and broaden their horizons. An indicative definition of curiosity as found in Hobbes' Leviathan proceeds as follows: Desire to know why, and how, curiosity; such as is in no living creature but man: so that man is distinguished, not only by his reason, but also by this singular passion from other animals; in whom the appetite of food, and other pleasures of sense, by predominance, take away the care of knowing causes; which is a lust of the mind, that by a perseverance of delight in the continual and indefatigable generation of knowledge, exceedeth the short vehemence of any carnal pleasure. 1

“The Teacher of Teachers”: James Mill and the Education of John Stuart Mill

“…99 Hobbes too thought that this wandering curiosity was one of the most "effectual seeds of death" of authority, 100 but he developed a curriculum specifically to curtail it. 101 Stifling curiosity as well as preventing the examination of received dogma, Helvétius thought, perpetuated dependence. 102…”