The State of Nature
Life before government
The State of Nature
Thomas Hobbes asked what life would be like with no government at all. His answer: a 'state of nature' where everyone competes for everything, a war of all against all. To escape this fear, people agree to hand power to a sovereign, the Leviathan, trading some freedom for the security of peace.
“The life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.”
Where this sits in the course
“The State of Nature” is lesson 1 of 3 in Power & the State, a course about why governments exist, when authority is legitimate, and when it fails.. The lessons are sequenced rather than a menu, so this one assumes what came before it.
Power & the State is itself one of 18 courses in thinkr. The set opens with what philosophy is, moves through the Stoics and the Eastern traditions, then into what can be known, what exists, how to act and how power works — closing on practical reasoning you can use in an argument this week.
More from Thomas Hobbes
“The life of man is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short — without civic friendship.”
“Curiosity is the lust of the mind.”
“For he that hath strength enough to protect all, wants not sufficiency to oppresse all.”
In the app this lesson is followed by 4 exercises that check whether the idea actually landed — and every answer, right or wrong, is explained rather than scored. That is the part a written page cannot reproduce.