Moral philosophy is nothing else but the science of what is good, and evil, in the conversation, and society of mankind. Good, and evil, are names that signify our appetites, and aversions; which in different tempers, customs, and doctrines of men, are different.
Interpretation
Moral philosophy explores the definitions of good and evil as they relate to human desires and societal norms.
In this quote, Thomas Hobbes emphasizes that moral philosophy is a discipline that seeks to understand the concepts of good and evil as they manifest in human interactions and society. He suggests that these notions are not absolute but are shaped by individual appetites, aversions, and the varying temperaments and customs of different cultures, highlighting the subjective nature of morality.
In practice
In a lecture on ethics, one might quote Hobbes to illustrate how moral values are socially constructed.
Baptism is the sacrament of allegiance of them that are to be received into the Kingdom of God, that is to say, into Eternal life, that is to say, to Remission of Sin. For as Eternal life was lost by the committing, so it is recovered by the remitting of men's sins.
Force and fraud are in war the two cardinal virtues.
For it is not the shape, but their use, that makes them angels.
For to accuse requires less eloquence, such is man's nature, than to excuse; and condemnation, than absolution, more resembles justice.
Scientia potentia est, sed parva; quia scientia egregia rara est, nec proinde apparens nisi paucissimis, et in paucis rebus. Scientiae enim ea natura est, ut esse intelligi non possit, nisi ab illis qui sunt scientia praediti.
The end of knowledge is power ... the scope of all speculation is the performing of some action or thing to be done.
If you are negotiating you must do so in a spirit of reconciliation, not from the point of view of issuing ultimatums.
What I've said before, only half in joke, is that everybody in Ireland is famous. Or, maybe better, say everybody is familiar.
It takes more than just a good looking body. You've got to have the heart and soul to go with it.
Men killing other men really is an extraordinary phenomenon. Why does it happen? And how long has it gone on? And have the motives changed?
All the sciences have a relation, greater or less, to human nature; and...however wide any of them may seem to run from it, they still return back by one passage or another. Even Mathematics, Natural Philosophy, and Natural Religion, are in some measure dependent on the science of MAN; since they lie under the cognizance of men, and are judged of by their powers and faculties.
A man must ride alternately on the horses of his private and his public nature.
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