State of Nature as State of War

 Qn. Comment on State of Nature as State of War.

Hobbes' theory of human nature is revolutionary in character, which is developed by applying the first principles of Galilean physics to human behaviour i.e., the body and motion that governs the rest of the Universe. He abolishes the Socratic, or classical conception of freedom, a conception which is based upon the assumption of human choices.

By observing human beings in the state of nature, Hobbes employs the resolutive-compositive method. Compositive method, to demonstrate that voluntary motions are ceaseless and people's quest for pleasure is insatiable, and that, as a consequence, human beings are innately self-interested power seekers. Resolutive method, to deduce the from the effects of people's behaviour their innate thirst for power, the ceaseless motion of the passions, and the underlying first principles of body and mind.

In the state-of-nature, Desire and Aversion are the root cause of conflict. Everybody is noved by the natural impulse of self-presenvation to desire and possess the objects or goods that are conducive to his existence. Since the goods or objects of desire are limited and men are roughly equal in strength, when physical power of some is offset by the mental superiority or cunningness of others, there consequently occurs a ruthless competition and conflict of interest among individuals in which no one is eventually victorious.

For Hobbes, the state-of-nature is nothing more than a mental construct. It is an intellectual act, a 'thought experiment' in which the conditions are absolute liberty and equality, and the right to everything. Since, all have a right to everything, and since all are equal in their capability of exercising this right, all are subject to attacks from others. For the right to everything means the right to dominate and even to destroy others. There are no laws to constrain behaviour in the state of nature. Hence, felicity, ultimate survival, dictates that we have a right to everything and that we use that rigth to acquire power over others lest they acquire it over use. The conditions inherent in the state of nature compel each person to engage in a parody of the golden rule, "to do unto others before they do unto you" which in turn implies that "out of civil states there is always war of everyone against everyone". The state of nature, in other words, is a state of war, and by war, Hobbes means not only real violence, but the constant threat of violence.

A voluntary motion, which is the impact of external stimuli, competition for goods of life becomes a struggle for power, because without power one cannot retain what one has acquired. One cannot retain power without acquiring more power. Thus, it turns out to be a "struggle for power after power which ceaseth only in death".

State of Nature, as demonstrated,

    No place for industry, No culture, No navigation, No time, No face of earth, No direction... continual fear... danger of violent death and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short.

Hobbes adopts a brutally pessimistic view of human beings in their natural condition. Hobbes is a critic of Socratic tradition of human nature (state of nature) as a state of peace, for which later contract thinkers would argue that some form of civilization existed even prior to the contract into civil society. 

Man possess reason in the State of nature as well, which is a slave of their passions and the role of reason is to devise the most efficient means of achieving these passions. Nature of war consists in a known disposition during the time there is no assurance to the contrary.