RIQUEZA, IMAGEM E EXPECTATIVA NA FILOSOFIA DE THOMAS HOBBES

To build his civil philosophy, Thomas Hobbes hadpreviously devoted himself to examining the element that constitutesa commonwealth: man. In his analysis of human affective-cognitivedynamics, elaborated from the concepts of sense, image, speech andpassion, the concept of imagination is presented as a reminiscence ofbody’s sensible experience. An image, as such, will be subject to beingovershadowed under the light of more recent or stronger images, whichmay erase it from the mind by taking its place. The action or faculty ofimagination — according to Hobbes, a ‘decaying sense’ — is memory,which expresses in present time the past sensation. Projected towardsthe future, image is kept in expression of fear or hope, passions thatimpel men to be creditors of some arrangement of power. Imaginationshapes expectation, which projects past and present time in the future, asa self-fulfilling prophecy, ensuring stability to power and wealth.