Thomas Hobbes State of Nature Essay - 1152 Words

In the beginning, there was a darker side to the preservation of life. Man lived a life of kill or be killed, without any regard for other than his own. Life was solitary, poor, brutish and short. This barbaric and primitive state is what Thomas Hobbes believed to be the State of Nature. Practical reason dictates that when threatened you either act, give up your property, or anticipate for a sign of weakness to act. This means that all have a right to everything so long as it can be attained. People cannot be trusted to follow the Golden Rule, or the ethic of reciprocity, seen in many religions as stating that one must do unto others as one would like to be treated themselves. With the ever looming danger of a cutthroat, survival of the†¦show more content†¦Locke believed that reason is what tells those in the natural state not to murder or offend anyone’s right to life, liberty and property. John Locke stated that this Natural right is inalienable, meaning that it becomes a great injustice to violate it. Where Hobbes’ believed the state of nature and a state of war to be one and the same, Locke saw them as two separate entities, and sees the state of war as a smaller occurrence. Locke believed that nature is at peace until one man attacks another. In this state of war it is suitable for the person being attacked to defend themselves from the transgressor. For Locke, It becomes increasingly difficult to defend the natural right due to the possibility of the state of war. In order to preserve the right, the people would also have to come together to form a social contract. They would then establish a state, whose job would be to PRESERVE the right, and to punish those who seek to attack it. The state will then decide upon a neutral judge. John Locke argues that the government’s only job is to act as an fair mediator of self-defense. This way the power of the state comes from consent and delegation of the governed. The government is limited by its people’s natural right and cannot overstep its bounds. Since the law of nature states that a person cannot violate another’s natural right, the same mentality must be kept by the government, or sovereign. If the sovereign fails to preserve orShow MoreRelatedThomas Hobbes And The State Of Nature1387 Words   |  6 Pagesthe book, Thomas Hobbes describes the state of nature in which men, driven by appetites and aversions, are constantly in a state of competition and conflict with one another. Because there are limited resources like food and shelter and people have a desire for the same end, there is no peace or unity in society. Every man must fend for himself in this individualistic, power struggle. The combination of finite resources, mistrust of other men, and equality of power in the state of nature, an unendingRead MoreThe State Of Nature By Thomas Hobbes2160 Words   |  9 PagesMichael Swain Paper 2 PS 171 (1) The state of nature as Thomas Hobbes claims is violent, dangerous and solitary. In a state of nature mankind is subjected to constant fear of death and it essentially runs every aspect of mans life. Yet a human is a rational being and there is a drive to get rid of this fear, one of the rights that Hobbes brings up is the right of self preservation and the fact that a man must not bring harm to himself. Hobbes discusses how natural rights are different than naturalRead MoreThomas Hobbes And The State Of Nature1727 Words   |  7 Pagesphilosophers the notion of the State of Nature, a concept used to describe the hypothetical conditions of human life before the development of societies, is important in determining political societies, or the governmental structures that composed these. However, many philosophers have different notions of the State of Nature. In this essay I am going to use the writings of Thomas Hobbes, John Locke and Jean-Jacque Rousseau to explain how their not ions of the State of Nature shape the way they envisionRead MoreThe State Of Nature By Thomas Hobbes3347 Words   |  14 Pagestime men live without a common power to keep them all in awe, they are in that condition which is called war; and such a war as is of every man against every man.†1 Here Thomas Hobbes portrays the state of nature; in which life is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.2 He then proposes a social contract where people of the state enter into a commonwealth governed by an absolute power. Through this social contract, the people give up their right to â€Å"everything† to the sovereign in exchange for securityRead MoreThe State of Nature: Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury1691 Words   |  7 PagesIn this essay, I will present three reasons as to why the absolute authority of the sovereign in Hobbes’s state of nature and social contract is justified. The three reasons Hobbes uses are: the argument from contract, the argument from authorisati on and the argument from weakness of mixed or divided sovereignty. Firstly, I shall explain Hobbes’s understanding of human nature and the natural condition of humanity which causes the emergence of the social contract. I shall then analyse each argumentRead MoreJohn Thomas Hobbes And The State Of Nature1162 Words   |  5 PagesOpposite to Augustine, Thomas Hobbes believes that the laws set what is wrong and without laws there would be no right or wrong. In Hobbes book Leviathan, argues government is an artificial part of life. Without government, we would be in the â€Å"state of nature†. In the state of nature, we are in a condition of war. Hobbes argues that in the condition of war â€Å"every man against every man, this also is consequent; that nothing can be unjust. The notions of right and wrong, justice and injustice, haveRead MoreState of Nature and Freedom: Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes1424 Words   |  6 PagesState of Nature and Freedom In the Leviathan, Thomas Hobbes places limits on the freedom of individuals in the social contract, as well as individuals in the state of nature. Hobbes writes that in the state nature, â€Å"the liberty each man hath to use his own power as he will himself for the preservation of his own nature; doing anything which, in his own judgement and reason, he shall conceive to be the aptest means there unto† (ch. 14,  ¶1). An individual’s will is only free when there is no extraneousRead MoreThomas Hobbes State of Nature in Leviathan Essay847 Words   |  4 PagesAccording to the view Thomas Hobbes presents within the selected passaged in the Leviathan, we live in a narcissistic society where man’s condition is primarily driven by ego and where the achievement of personal goals is deemed paramount. Within the State of Nature that is, outside of civil society we have a right to all things ‘even to one another’s body’, and there would be no agree d authority to ensure the moral grounds of our decisions. Therefore since there are no restrictions and no sharedRead MoreThomas Hobbes State of Nature in Leviathan Essay1433 Words   |  6 Pagestheories that grew from them. However, in Thomas Hobbes Leviathan we see a departure from this inequality. The argument of people being equal and the state of man that he develops from that belief are central not only to his own theory but to the world of political science today. It is his examination of people being equal, followed by the state of nature and war, and finally his look at various laws of nature that lead a natural path to his political solution. Hobbes assertion that all people are equalRead MoreThe State Of Nature By Thomas Hobbes And Jean Jacques Rousseau1800 Words   |  8 Pagesquestion whether war is a product of Man s nature or an outcome of nurture has been a source of intellectual debate. In the seventeenth and the eighteenth centuries each of the political philosophers, Thomas Hobbes and Jean-Jacques Rousseau took different stances regarding this issue in their deduction of the state of nature; a concept describing people s lives before the existence of civilized societies and laws. Thomas Hobbes imagines a state of nature where each person is naturally fully free