Leviathan · Chapter
VI: Of the Interior Beginnings of Voluntary Motions; Commonly Called the Passions; and the Speeches by Which They Are Expressed explained
This chapter defines the internal origins of voluntary motion, distinguishing vital from animal motions.
What happens
This chapter defines the internal origins of voluntary motion, distinguishing vital from animal motions. It introduces 'endeavour' as the small beginning of motion, leading to appetite/desire and aversion. Hobbes systematically catalogs the passions (hope, despair, fear, courage, anger, etc.) and their expressions, linking them to good and evil as relative to individual desire. He also discusses deliberation, will, and the nature of felicity as continual success, not perpetual tranquility.
Free preview opens on this chapter — companions, themes, and character notes appear beside the text.
Narrative arc
Story tension across the book — this chapter sits in Exposition.
- Setup
- Escalation
- Breaking point
- Aftermath
- Closing
This is the story's dramatic climax because it reveals the sovereign's right to punish is not a gift from subj…
Full beat labels and climax notes unlock in the reader.
Follow the arc while readingThemes in this chapter
- Human Nature and Passions
The chapter provides a detailed taxonomy of human passions (hope, fear, anger, etc.) as internal motions, grounding moral psychology in mechanistic philosophy.
- Liberty and Obligation
Discusses deliberation and the will as the last appetite in deliberation, linking voluntary action to the absence of external impediments.
Key passages
“For 'appetite,' with an opinion of attaining, is called 'hope.' The same, without such opinion, 'despair.'”
Hope is desire combined with the belief that we can achieve something; despair is desire without that belief.
Hobbes defines hope and despair as variations of appetite based on perceived likelihood of attainment.
“Continual success in obtaining those things which a man from time to time desireth, that is to say, continual prospering, is that men call 'felicity'; I mean the felicity of this life.”
Happiness in this life is not a static state but the ongoing achievement of what we desire.
Hobbes rejects the idea of perpetual tranquility, defining felicity as a dynamic process of successful desire fulfillment.
