Leviathan: Is the State of Nature Quote Really True?
Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) was a gifted mathematician who believed in working rigorously front clearly defined first principles to conclusion, so he grounded his political vision upon a comprehensive philosophy of nature and of knowledge. Hobbes also believed that humans seek self-preservation as a primary goal, and power as means to secure that goal. So even though Hobbes argues that the book, Leviathan is about stating the nature as a state of “war,” I am going to argue that that state of nature is not the state of “war” because in the state of nature (according to Hobbes), men have lived without a common authority to keep them in peace and each man only took care of himself and there was constant possibility of war.
The first reason to argue that the state of nature is not in a state of “war” because Hobbes has no chance on proving his point. Hobbes had summarized that in the state of nature, there were three principles: “First, Competition; Secondly, Diffidence; Thirdly Glory (Piirimäe, P.). This is not in a state of nature because the concept of felicity, which is the first cause of conflict, was known as the up most aim of men, which means that Hobbes had apparently fail to achieve in the state of nature (Piirimäe, P.). The second cause of conflict is the lack of trust in others or diffidence. People that are in the state of nature had realized that their life is conditioned by two fundamental premises: firstly, that they re natural competitors for power and secondly that no one can assume a natural superiority in competition, as they are roughly equal in their ability to kill one another. This cannot be a state of nature because the factors can create a climate of mutu ...