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II.
Exposition of the Ethics of Hobbes.
There can be very little reasonable doubt that Hobbes himself regarded his ethical philosophy as a constituent part of his philosophical system. His philosophical system is divided into three parts. In the first part, physical phenomena are treated under the head of "Body.” In the second part, mental phenomena are treated under the head of "Man." In the third part, social or political phenomena are treated under the head of "The State." In this system social or political phenomena are regarded as dependent on the mental constitution of man; hence the State, composed as it is of human individuals, has its foundation in human nature. Mental phenomena in turn are dependent on physical phenomena, inasmuch as all mental processes arise from sensations, which are merely the mental aspect of motions in the human body, which motions are occasioned by external bodies pressing upon the organs of sense.[1] These external bodies are explainable also in terms of motion. We have, then, "Body" as "the first term of a series leading up to Society or the State through Man. Man, since his nature contains the ground of civil institutions, stands out from among all other natural bodies. The State is not simply to be viewed in its existent form as body politic, but rather as it comes into being — the product of human wit for the satisfaction of human wants. Thus, between Nature and Society the bridge is Man; and hence the profounder disposition of the whole work of the philosopher as a progression from Body (which remains natural) through Man to Citizen."[2] Although the last