"The privilege of absurdity; to which no living creature is subject, but man only"
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Absurdity, for Hobbes, isnt a charming quirk of human creativity; its a uniquely human liability that comes bundled with language. Calling it a "privilege" is a blade-twist of irony: we congratulate ourselves for reason, yet our special power is also the only thing that lets us manufacture nonsense with confidence. Animals can be frightened, misled, even trained into error, but they cant spin elaborate contradictions and then defend them as truth. Only humans can.
The line lands inside Hobbess larger project in Leviathan: deflating romantic accounts of human nature and replacing them with a hard, mechanistic psychology. We are not fallen angels; we are talking animals whose words can detach from reality. Speech makes cooperation possible, yes, but it also creates ideology, superstition, scholastic hairsplitting, and the kind of moral grandstanding that turns disagreement into civil war. Absurdity is not random silliness; its the counterfeit of reason, produced when words circulate without tethering back to clear definitions or shared experience.
The subtext is political. If absurdity is endemic to human discourse, then a stable commonwealth cant rely on everyone reasoning flawlessly. It needs discipline: agreed meanings, institutions, and an authority strong enough to settle disputes before they metastasize into violence. Hobbes isnt just sneering at human pretension; hes warning that our greatest tool is also our most efficient weapon against ourselves.
The line lands inside Hobbess larger project in Leviathan: deflating romantic accounts of human nature and replacing them with a hard, mechanistic psychology. We are not fallen angels; we are talking animals whose words can detach from reality. Speech makes cooperation possible, yes, but it also creates ideology, superstition, scholastic hairsplitting, and the kind of moral grandstanding that turns disagreement into civil war. Absurdity is not random silliness; its the counterfeit of reason, produced when words circulate without tethering back to clear definitions or shared experience.
The subtext is political. If absurdity is endemic to human discourse, then a stable commonwealth cant rely on everyone reasoning flawlessly. It needs discipline: agreed meanings, institutions, and an authority strong enough to settle disputes before they metastasize into violence. Hobbes isnt just sneering at human pretension; hes warning that our greatest tool is also our most efficient weapon against ourselves.
Quote Details
| Topic | Wisdom |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
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