The English works of Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury, Volume 01 (of 11)
Thomas Hobbes · en
9. This being true, it is necessary that mutation can be nothing else
but motion of the parts of that body which is changed. For first, we do
not say anything is changed, but that which appears to our senses
otherwise than it appeared formerly. Secondly, both those appearances
are effects produced in the sentient; and, therefore, if they be
different, it is necessary, by the preceding article, that either some
part of the agent, which was formerly at rest, is now moved, and so the
mutation consists in this motion; or some part, which was formerly
moved, is now otherwise moved, and so also the mutation consists in this
new motion; or which, being formerly moved, is now at rest, which, as I
have shewn above, cannot come to pass without motion; and so again,
mutation is motion; or lastly, it happens in some of these manners to
the patient, or some of its parts; so that mutation, howsoever it be
made, will consist in the motion of the parts, either of the body which
is perceived, or of the sentient body, or of both. Mutation therefore is
motion, namely, of the parts either of the agent or of the patient;
which was to be demonstrated. And to this it is consequent, that rest
cannot be the cause of anything, nor can any action proceed from it;
seeing neither motion nor mutation can be caused by it.
[Sidenote: Contingent accidents.]
10. Accidents, in respect of other accidents which precede them, or are
before them in time, and upon which they do not depend as upon their
causes, are called _contingent_ accidents; I say, in respect of those
accidents by which they are not generated; for, in respect of their
causes, all things come to pass with equal necessity; for otherwise they
would have no causes at all; which, of things generated, is not
intelligible.
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CHAPTER X.
OF POWER AND ACT.
1. Power and cause are the same thing.—2. An act is produced at the same
instant in which the power is plenary.—3. Active and passive power
are parts only of plenary power.—4. An act, when said to be
possible.—5. An act necessary and contingent, what.—6. Active power
consists in motion.—7. Cause, formal and final, what they are.
[Sidenote: Power and cause are the same thing.]