ABSTRACT
This chapter concentrates on Hobbes's inference from the passions to the inevitability of war in the state of nature, asking how this could be expected to persuade. It suggests that in Hobbes's sense of 'scientific' the precepts form a scientific system. In fact, the precepts amount to a persuasive civil science. There is a difficulty for Hobbes in the idea of a science that fuses reason and eloquence; but can indicate how Hobbes might have solved this problem. The standard sub-section of The Elements of Law starts with a definition of a term, moves on to the cause of the conception defined by the term, and perhaps draws a consequence from a definition, or shows how the term has been misdefined by other authors. Hobbes's idea of science, together with the cognate ideas of knowledge, logic and teaching, are better adapted to speculative than to practical matters, and it is the same for reason or ratiocination.
