Would Life in the State of Nature Be Intolerable as Hobbes and Locke Believe?
Would life in the State of Nature be intolerable as Hobbes and Locke believe?
The state of nature is described as a primitive state untouched by civilization; it is the condition before the rule of law and is therefore a synonym of Anarchy.
Anarchy means without government, anarchist thought is the conviction that existing forms of government are productive of wars, internal violence, repression and misery.
Hobbes political philosophy considers what the life of man would be like without the state; of which is described as ‘brutish, short and nasty.’
This view strongly contrasts with the utopian elements in anarchist thought.
The Leviathan, which is an archetypal statement of the need for strong government equates anarchy with violence and disorder. The complexity of political ideas generated by both philosophies can be examined and contrasted against one another; to generate an opposite consistent anarchist inversion of Hobbism thought that justifies life in a state of nature that is not insufferable.
Hobbes explores the logic of a situation in which human nature predisposes men to act in certain ways, and there is no superior power to stop them from warring with each other (Sorrel, 1996). Therefore in the state of nature there is no economic prosperity, as this depends on security and co-operation, no scientific knowledge ‘ no arts; no letters; no society; and which is worst of all continual fear and danger of violent death’( Leviathan 82) This is an intense and extreme depiction of what life would be like with no government at all. Superimposed on this are images of a partial state of nature resulting from the breakdown of central government, or civil war, the realistic dangers Hobbes is trying to avert ( Gauthier, 1969)
Hobbes abstract justification for government rests on the legalistic fiction of the social contract. The contract is created between two individuals motivated to set up a government because of the miseries they endure in the state
The state of nature is described as a primitive state untouched by civilization; it is the condition before the rule of law and is therefore a synonym of Anarchy.
Anarchy means without government, anarchist thought is the conviction that existing forms of government are productive of wars, internal violence, repression and misery.
Hobbes political philosophy considers what the life of man would be like without the state; of which is described as ‘brutish, short and nasty.’
This view strongly contrasts with the utopian elements in anarchist thought.
The Leviathan, which is an archetypal statement of the need for strong government equates anarchy with violence and disorder. The complexity of political ideas generated by both philosophies can be examined and contrasted against one another; to generate an opposite consistent anarchist inversion of Hobbism thought that justifies life in a state of nature that is not insufferable.
Hobbes explores the logic of a situation in which human nature predisposes men to act in certain ways, and there is no superior power to stop them from warring with each other (Sorrel, 1996). Therefore in the state of nature there is no economic prosperity, as this depends on security and co-operation, no scientific knowledge ‘ no arts; no letters; no society; and which is worst of all continual fear and danger of violent death’( Leviathan 82) This is an intense and extreme depiction of what life would be like with no government at all. Superimposed on this are images of a partial state of nature resulting from the breakdown of central government, or civil war, the realistic dangers Hobbes is trying to avert ( Gauthier, 1969)
Hobbes abstract justification for government rests on the legalistic fiction of the social contract. The contract is created between two individuals motivated to set up a government because of the miseries they endure in the state
References: • Woodcock, George, (1977) The Anarchist Reader, chpt7 • Ferrel, Jeff, (2001) Tearing Down The Streets; Adventures in Urban Anarchy, chpt 5, 2, 1 • Nozick, Robert, ( 2006) Anarchy State and Utopia, chpt 2, 5 • Rotberg, Robert, ( 2004) When States Fail; Causes and Consequences, chpt 4 • Bain, William, ( 1967) Between Anarchy and Society chpt 1, 2, 3 • Gauthier, David, ( 1969) The Logic of Leviathan, chpt 1, 2, 5 • Sorrel, Tom, ( 1986) The Arguments Of Philosophies, chpt 8, 11 • Sorrel, Tom ( 1996) Cambridge Companion to Hobbes, chpt 9 chpt = Chapter