Scope Quotes (2)
The end of knowledge is power ... the scope of all speculation is the performing of some action or thing to be done.
De Corp, EW, i, I, 1, 6, 7. In Jean Hampton, Hobbes and the social contract tradition (1988), 46. Hampton indicates that this quote is 'after Bacon' and in a footnote, that 'Hobbes was Bacon's secretary as a young man and had philosophical discussions with him (Aubrey 1898, 331).'
The instinct to command others, in its primitive essence, is a carnivorous, altogether bestial and savage instinct. Under the influence of the mental development of man, it takes on a somewhat more ideal form and becomes somewhat ennobled, presenting itself as the instrument of reason and the devoted servant of that abstraction, or political fiction, which is called the public good. But in its essence it remains just as baneful, and it becomes even more so when, with the application of science, it extends its scope and intensifies the power of its action. If there is a devil in history, it is this power principle.
In Mikhail Aleksandrovich Bakunin, Grigorii Petrovich Maksimov, Max Nettlau, The political philosophy of Bakunin (1953), 248.
See also: | Abstraction (4) | Action (16) | Application (11) | Bestial (2) | Carnivorous (2) | Development (20) | Devil (4) | Essence (5) | Extend (2) | Fiction (3) | History (61) | Ideal (8) | Influence (9) | Instinct (13) | Instinct (13) | Instrument (8) | Mental (2) | Power (19) | Primitive (3) | Reason (69) | Savage (5) | Science (444) | Servant (3)
