Thomas Hobbes on Daylight Saving
Hobbes, Leviathan:
NATURE (the art whereby God hath made and governs the world) is by the art of man, as in many other things, so in this also imitated, that it can make an artificial animal. For seeing life is but a motion of limbs, the beginning whereof is in some principal part within, why may we not say that all automata (engines that move themselves by springs and wheels as doth a watch) have an artificial life?
Don’t forget to set your clocks forward tonight.
2 Comments
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For a different view, see the work of contemporary philosopher Lynne Baker, esp. Persons and Bodies and Naturalism and the First Person Perspective.
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What a wonderful quote, and delicious language and style.
Our automata and growing host of artificial animals, though, have already taken care of such mundane business as time-change, mostly.