During The Time Men Live Without A Common Power To Keep Them All In Awe, They Are In That Condition Which Is Called Warre; And Such A Warre, As Is Of Every Man, Against Every Man (Hobbes, Leviathan). How Does Hobbes' View Of The ‘Condition Of Man' Inform The Literature Of This Period?
This quote from Thomas Hobbes ‘Leviathan,' summarizes his opinion of the natural condition of mankind as concerning their felicity and misery. He basically suggests a natural impulse for war embedded in the souls of men who do not have a ruler, or a king. They are without bounds, and without limits. It is a state of anarchy that he envisages.
He believes that ‘Nature hath made men so equal' that ‘one man can claim to himself any benefit to which another may not pretend as well as he.' This, taken from Chapter 11, leads us to a conclusion that three things in the Nature of man bring out complexities that cannot be resolved and lead to tyranny and war. These are competition, diffidence and glory. Mankind's self-instincts for preservation of their own well-being, and their natural urges to further their own name and have good opinions held in their regard, will lead them to destroy one another. This state of war ‘consisteth not in battle only,' but ‘in a tract of......
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Approximate Pages: 8 (250 words per double-spaced page)
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