Hobbes reduced human free will, appetite, and liberty to mechanical motion

Evidence

In both man and beast, appetite was the result of a prior necessary cause—that is, motion—and was not free. Similarly, liberty was not freedom and spontaneity, but simply the power to carry out what previously had been willed. — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature, 810

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Hobbes’s sovereign governs atomized society externally as a technician operates a machine — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature: Women, Ecology,…, 816; Hobbes stripped matter of all inherent activity and power — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature: Women, Ecology,…, 808; Hobbes’s state of nature reframed humans as atomized, appetitive competitors — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature: Women, Ecology,…, 812 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Hobbes reduced moral obligation to prudential self-interest calculation #expands (0.75) — Talal Asad, Formations of the Secular, 638