Curiosità e metodo in thomas hobbes

The question of the unity of Hobbes's method and system has recently returned to the fore. In what follows we will consider the question not in general epistemological terms, but rather from an anthropological viewpoint, focusing on Hobbes's doctrine "of man' and especially his theory of mind, which connects materialistic physics to morals and politics. The main challenge will be to see how Hobbes tried to preserve human distinctiveness without sapping the materialistic foundations of the system. The crucial notions to address will be "passionate thought" and "curiosity". As we shall see, these notions are tightly connected to the methodological issue, so that a method and "system", with the problem of their unity in Hobbes's thought, overlap on this very point.