Note 42 — Chapter XI · EUTHYPHRON.

Plato, Euthyphron, p. 8, C-D, Euripides, Phœnissæ, 499 —

εἰ πᾶσι ταὐτὸ καλὸν ἔφυ, σοφόν θ’ ἄμα, οὐκ ἦν ἂν ἀμφιλεκτὸς ἀνθρώποις ἔρις· νῦν δ’ οὐθ’ ὅμοιον οὐδὲν οὔτ’ ἴσον βρότοις, πλὴν ὀνομάσαι· τὸ δ’ ἔργον οὐκ ἔστιν τόδε.

Hobbes expresses, in the following terms, this fact of subjective similarity co-existent with great objective dissimilarity among mankind.

“For the similitude of the thoughts and passions of one man, to the thoughts and passions of another, whoever looketh into himself and considereth what he does when he does think, opine, reason, hope, fear, &c., and upon what grounds, he shall thereby read and know what are the thoughts and passions of all other men upon the like occasions. I say the similitude of passions, which are the same in all men, desire, fear, hope, &c., not the similitude of the objects of the passions, which are the things desired, feared, hoped, &c., for these the constitution individual, and particular education do so vary, and they are so easy to be kept from our knowledge, that the characters of man’s heart, blotted and confounded as they are with lying, dissembling, counterfeiting, and erroneous doctrines, are legible only to him that searcheth hearts.” Introduction to Leviathan.