The State Of Nature
May 14th, 2008 at 10:47AM
According to Thomas Hobbes, the state of nature is the state where each individual would have the right, or license to everything in the world. I believe that if society is stripped down — of everything artificial — we would be in that state. The world was originally in a state of nature.
Before I go any further, here I define a state as a point in space, not a governing one or a collective.
Hobbes’ assumption of the natural state led him into proposing a social contract — ultimately creation of society. For my own behalf, I will only accept the truthfulness of Hobbes’ assumption.
In the state of nature where a man can do what he wants is the foundation of my selfishness. If a man was originally allowed to do what he wished — free from constraints of society, then he should be forever allowed to do what he wants to do regardless of its effect on others.
It is not difficult to acknowledge the state of nature because it is always present, only hidden by the artificial curtains enveloping it. It is a sad thing, however, that when a man is born, he is conventionally acquainted to the artificial state and will take him a lifetime to realize that there is indeed a state with no constraints.
Related Posts
Entry Filed under: Philosophy
Leave a Comment
Some HTML allowed:
<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>
Trackback this post | Subscribe to the comments via RSS Feed