Materialism from Hobbes to Locke

Book excerpt: "This chapter looks at Hobbes's materialism. The chapter begins by presenting his materialist account of human psychology, focusing on the account in the Elements of Law. The chapter then considers three arguments that Hobbes offers for his materialism, which draw on his nominalism and his views about the workings of language. The chapter then turns to Hobbes's views about God. It considers his earlier view that we can only think of God as the first cause of things, as well as his later view that God is a corporeal spirit, before asking when Hobbes changed his mind about this issue." --