Modern Curiosity Sample Clauses

Modern Curiosity. III.1 Hobbes Xxxxxx’ attitude regarding curiosity is, in keeping with his general philosophy of human nature, not so easy to classify as categorically “positive” or “negative.” While Xxxxxx views curiosity as what separates us from lower animals, it is also ultimately what leads to the greed, competition, and suffering that characterizes our condition. Xxxxxx provides his definition in the following passage from Leviathan: Desire to know why, and how, curiosity; such as is in no living creature but man: so that man is distinguished, not only by his reason, but also by this singular passion from other animals; in whom the appetite of food, and other pleasures of sense, by predominance, take away the care of knowing causes; which is a lust of the mind, that by a perseverance of delight in the continual and indefatigable generation of knowledge, exceedeth the short vehemence of any carnal pleasure.138 Though humans and animals share passions such as hunger and fear, curiosity—which stems from our unique capacity to reason—thus qualifies as a distinctly human passion.139 However, Xxxxxx presents a more nuanced definition elsewhere in the Leviathan. Although the passage above suggests that curiosity merely consists of searching out causes,140 another passage indicates two interrelated but nonetheless distinct “types” of curiosity: The first searches for causes, working backwards from an experienced event (e.g., a sound or smell) to its potential cause. The second is the opposite—searching for and imagining possible effects of 138 Xxxxxx Xxxxxx, Leviathan, ed. J.C.A. Xxxxxx (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1996), X.XX. 139 In addition to describing curiosity in the familiar language of “lust,” Xxxxxx also uses the phrase “appetite of knowledge” (Elements of Law, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1928, I.9, 45) to place it on par with the physical appetites listed here. 140 This simple definition is also found in Leviathan, I.VIII, “curiosity to search natural causes,” and I.XI, “Curiosity, or love of the knowledge of causes…” causes. This second kind of curiosity, Xxxxxx says, “I have not at any time seen any sign, but in man only.”141 The first kind, however, we actually do share with animals, though there is still a distinction between our uses. Animals seek causes only insofar as they relate to immediate sensual pleasures and needs. Although humans certainly do pursue self-interest,142 our inquiry extends further, encompassing all causes and all r...