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Thomas Hobbes is a brilliant political philosopher who happens to have a very pessimistic view on human nature. He believes that fear is a key element in human nature and basically that people are too bad to be virtuous. His view is interesting because he believes you get this view of human nature by looking at yourself, which says a lot about how he views himself. While there are many things that I could critique about Hobbes’ theory, mostly because I do not completely agree with them, there are some I agree with. I think it would be incorrect to say that Hobbes was completely off about human nature or his theory in general because some of his theories can still be seen in the world today. One of the main ideas of Hobbes is the idea of self-preservation, which is very dominant in today’s society.

Hobbes believed that people each have their own ideas of right and wrong, and that there is no way to tell if a person’s version of right and wrong is universally right or wrong. Practically, that each person will create their own rationalization and will even kill another person for physical safety or securing

First, Hobbes says that nature is chaos. There are no rules, and the only means of protection are the strengths of each individual. There is no trust among anyone, and each individual only cares about his or herself. Hobbes develops the right of nature, or self-preservation, out of these circumstances. Each individual has a right to think of self-preservation in a world where no one can be trusted. One might think that this wouldn’t fix the problem of the natural chaos. However, Hobbes explains that the focus on self-preservation will be so powerful that individuals will make covenants that will be adhered to because they preserve everyone and hence oneself. This is in accordance with Hobbes’ concept of the laws of nature. He explains the laws of nature to be: seek peace, forfeit rights, and keep covenants. Humans pursuing self-preservation would realize that by seeking peace and forfeiting rights such as taking what one wanted from others as one saw fit self-preservation is easier and more achievable. This also requires the formation of governments to enforce the covenants made. Otherwise, there would be no way to know for certain that the covenants would be respected and upheld. With the formation of government come concepts such as justice. Hobbes bases his definition of justice on the very thing that created the government: covenants, and the keeping of those valid or

     He claims that acts of kindness, charity and benevolence are always actions that the performer believes will result in a beneficial consequence for himself. Hobbes’ basis for this argument lies in the concept of

In Chapters XIV and XV of Levathian, Thomas Hobbes claims that men are naturally wicked and every man has a right to self-preservation. He supports this assertion with his five natural laws of man and analyzes, illustrates and gives examples of each law. For example, Hobbes first law is “that every man ought to endeavor peace, as far as he has hope of obtaining it” (XIV, par 4). Also, he states his fifth law which argues “that every man

Thomas Hobbes believed that Humans are by nature free also equal in faculties of body and mind and humans are just physical objects and our Human Nature was just like he stated "The natural state of man's life is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short", according to Hobbes, human beings are essentially selfish, we are not essentially good or ethical people because in Hobbes opinion ethics come with politics and politics are the root of selfishness. Hobbes argued that the essential natural right was "to use his own power, as he will himself, for the preservation of his own Nature.

Hobbes believes that humans are inherently evil and if they were to live free their lives would be

He argues that justice is needed for people to live together in civil society. He outlines this idea down to human beings in the “state of nature”. In Hobbes' view, the nature of human being is selfish and vain, which makes people compete with and distrust one another. (Get quote). In the state of nature, every man is unjust and life of man is nothing but tragic.

Hobbes believes that the nature of man there are three principal causes of quarrel competition, diffidence, and glory. He believes that people are egoistic and act from self-interest motive. But, if we submit to a social contract by giving up killing or assaulting each other we gain protection, and friends. Hobbes thinks the point of morality is to help us escape or avoid a state of nature.

Our basic selfish quality from birth shows, thus spiraling our society into this state of chaos. The reason we are selfish by nature is due to fear. We fear danger and poverty, so we become selfish to protect ourselves and those closest to us. Hobbes proposes the Social Contract as a solution to prevent the dangerous and brutal image he describes in the state of nature.

To begin, there are a few terms and concepts brought forward in Hobbes piece that I will define now. The first being “egoist,” an egoist is someone whose sole goal or ultimate end is their own happiness. Psychological egoism is a slight variation of this idea, in that everyone does act egoistically, because it is our human nature. The next term, “sovereign,” is an authoritative ruler of state, one who uses fear to enforce contracts. The “Right of Nature,” Hobbes defines is the right someone may invoke if their is danger presented that harms their lives. The most important thing to an egoist is staying alive, therefore Hobbes implements the “Right

Thomas Hobbes sees human from a mechanistic view that life is simply the motions of the organism believes that a state of nature in human kind will eventually become a state of war of all against all. He attempted to justify the absolute power of the sovereign on the basis of a hypothetical social contract in which individuals seek to protect themselves from one another by agreeing to obey the sovereign in all matters. The key element in Hobbes’s view on human nature was the importance of desires. He believes Law is the regulation over human kind`s essential selfishness. His works are considered important statements of the nascent ideas of liberalism as well as of the longstanding assumptions of absolutism

To Hobbes is for humans to protect them from their own selfishness and evil. Hobbes “believed that it is impossible for humans to have a type of freedom and peace, since the state of freedom which is a state of greed and war”(Johnson) which is impossible because greed and war are what make people turn on each other. Hobbes believes the best way to have a government is a type of Leviathan or sea monster that can rule with an iron fist. Hobbes believes that rule by a king or queen is to provide an authority figure for the country to provide the people that live their direction and leadership to show the people the right way. He believes that humans need, this is because the people are only self-interested in themselves.

To examine what was behind Hobbes’ determination that a society is needed to restrain us, we must first look at his account of human nature. Hobbes claims, “Nature hath made men so equal in the faculties of body and mind as that, though there be found one man sometimes manifestly stronger in body or of quicker mind than another, yet when all is reckoned together the difference between man and man is not

Thomas Hobbes was a 17th century philosopher whose pessimistic view of human kind is that because of their selfish nature are unable to control their behavior. He believed only an absolute monarchy with unchecked power over his subjects