Leviathan, by Thomas Hobbes. Chapter 16; Of Persons, Authors, and Things Personated. By Tosin Onibiyo.

 Chapter 16 of Leviathan; Hobbes started with the description of a person as "He whose words or actions are considered, either as his own, or as representing the words or actions of another man....by fiction." When a man's actions are of his, then he is a natural/original person, but when his actions or words are of another, then he is considered artificial according to Hobbes. Reading along, he focuses more on what impersonation of another is: "to personate is to act or represent himself or another; and he that acteth another is said to bear his person, or act in his name." He gave example of where Cicero was personating three persons; himself, his adversary and the judge's. In addition to Hobbes analysis here, the person personating another is the actor who acted by authority or license of whom owneth the act, and the owner of the actions or words is the author. Furthermore, he emphasized on the convenant an actor and the author are both bonded by, and the consequences connected to each. When "children, fools and madmen that have no use of reason" are personate by "guardians, or curators" he said, they "can be no authors during that time of any action done by them, longer than (when they shall recover the use of reason)." Which in other word means when fools, mad people or children are being represented by guardians or curators, they cannot be authors because children, fools or madmen have got no sense of thinking whatsoever. They only do as they want without any reasoning behind it. He also indicated that "The true God may be Personated." As Moses, Jesus and the Holy Spirit did being that they came representing God and not as of themselves. Finally, he analyzed multitude of men in the odd and even number aspect, their representations, opinions, interests and consequences. He concluded describing the two types of authors; first, person that owns the action of another 'simply' and the second, a person that owns an action or convenant of another 'conditionally.' Which brings me to the conclusion of Hobbes chapter 16 analysis of the persons, authors, actors and personations.