Catherine Wilson

This chapter offers an overview and comparison of Descartes’s and Locke’s stances toward religious and moral issues (their ‘essential religiosity’), such as their views on divine agency in the creation of the world and direction of human affairs; the relevance of divine retribution and reward to morality; their sense of supernatural power and artistry as revealed in things of the world. It contrasts the different kinds of epistemic and moral humility that these engender in each author. Descartes’s attitude of acceptance towards all that befalls us followed from his conception of the universe as a law-governed realm, manifesting God’s impersonal wisdom and power. Locke’s belief that God is merciful with respect to human weakness and our tendency to stumble and blunder follows from his sense of the complexity of nature and human affairs and the mediocrity of human reason.

This chapter examines Thomas Hobbes's book entitled Leviathan. It suggests that this work is more than just an account of social contract, and explains that Hobbes also explored the issues concerning the human mind and its affects and powers, the psychology of religion, language and reasoning, and the condition of English higher education. The chapter also considers the place of natural persons in Hobbes's systems and suggests that Hobbes deployed two conflicting images of humanity in his writings.