What Thomas Hobbes Actually Said About Presence
All 3 Thomas Hobbes passages on presence, in full — what each one claims, what holds them together, and who argues the other way.
Thomas Hobbes returns to presence three times in thinkr's library — more often than to almost anything else. English political philosopher. Leviathan argues that a strong sovereign is the cost of escaping the war of all against all.
What follows is every one of those passages, in full, with what each is actually claiming. The language is of its period, but the question underneath is not: what is presence for, and what does it ask of you?
Every Thomas Hobbes passage on presence
“Of all Discourse, governed by desire of Knowledge, there is at last an End, either by attaining, or by giving over.”
“From whence it follows, that were the publique and private interest are most closely united, there is the publique most advanced.”
“Now I am about to take my last voyage, a great leap in the dark.”
What holds these together
Read in sequence rather than one at a time, the passages stop being separate aphorisms. Thomas Hobbes is not offering three opinions about presence; the lines are facets of one position, and the repetition is the argument. The shortest of them — “Now I am about to take my last voyage, a great leap in the dark” — is the version you can carry, and the longer ones are what it unpacks into.
Thomas Hobbes applied to a real decision
Quotation is the easy part. The harder test is what the position actually does when it meets a situation where every option costs something. thinkr puts two such cases to Thomas Hobbes.
You notice a loophole that benefits you and hurts no one visibly.
Argued as skeptical realism: You are suspicious of moral theater and alert to how systems really work. The risk is becoming clever at the expense of character.
Your workplace rewards a version of you that feels false.
Argued as social contract: You are acknowledging that institutions run on roles and incentives. The danger is becoming unable to find your own face afterward.
Work through these yourself
- You notice a loophole that benefits you and hurts no one visibly. — argued from skeptical realism and several competing positions
- Your workplace rewards a version of you that feels false. — argued from social contract and several competing positions
Who disagrees
Marcus Aurelius, Seneca, Mahatma Gandhi and Confucius all address presence too, and they do not converge. Reading Thomas Hobbes alone gives you a coherent position; reading Thomas Hobbes against Marcus Aurelius shows you what the position is actually choosing against.