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state of nature, in political theory, the real or hypothetical condition of human beings before or without political association. The notion of a state of nature was an essential element of the social-contract theories of the English philosophers Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679) and John Locke (1632–1704) and the French philosopher Jean-Jacques ...
Feb 12, 2002 · Hobbes argues that the state of nature is a miserable state of war in which none of our important human ends are reliably realizable. Happily, human nature also provides resources to escape this miserable condition.
Feb 1, 2024 · Hobbes' State of Nature. The English philosopher Thomas Hobbes can lay claim to creating some of the most distinctive and memorable statements about the state of nature. For Hobbes, humans in the state of nature are concerned with one thing only, their self-preservation.
His theory suggests that (in the state of nature) you could do me no wrong, as the right of nature dictates that we all have a right to all things. Likewise, promises do not oblige in the state of nature, inasmuch as they go against our right of nature.
Nov 27, 2023 · Hobbes famously took a negative view of human nature and the human condition, stating that before societies were formed, in what he described as the state of nature, "the life of man [is] solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short" (Leviathan, ch. 13). Hobbes believed that humans are driven by selfish and egoistic desires to satisfy their basic ...
The State of Nature. Science of Politics. References and Further Reading. Primary Sources. Secondary Sources. 1. History and Politics: The Political Problem. Hobbes presented his “science of politics” as a response to a specific historical situation characterized by acute political problems.
Hobbes’s state of nature thus emerged as the condition that any rational individual would wish to avoid. His successive images of anarchy reveal a consistent strategy aimed at rendering the natural condition of mankind a credible encapsulation of the perils of disobedience.
Mar 11, 2009 · Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679), whose current reputation rests largely on his political philosophy, was a thinker with wide-ranging interests. In philosophy, he defended a range of materialist, nominalist, and empiricist views against Cartesian and Aristotelian alternatives.
May 26, 2024 · Overview. state of nature. Quick Reference. The state of human beings outside civil society, invoked by philosophers such as Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau, in order to clarify what is explained by nature as opposed to what is explained by convention, and what is justified in each way.
May 17, 2024 · Hobbes turns Aristotle’s claim on its head: human beings, he insists, are by nature unsuited to political life. They naturally denigrate and compete with each other, are very easily swayed by the rhetoric of ambitious persons, and think much more highly of themselves than of other people.
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