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All men are equal
Three principles causes of quarrel:
Competition, diffidence (fear), glory
Thus ‘warre’ for self-preservation ensues, bellum omnium contra omnes (war of all against all ( De Cive ))
Life is ‘solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short’
There is no law and no property rights
Right and wrong does not exist, morality ceases to exist due to insecurity

 Civil War
 Situations between sovereigns
(relationships between states)
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American ‘savages’
 Distrust in civil society
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Cain’s murder of Abel (In Leviathan’s
Latin version)

 Men leave the state of nature due to:
Fear of death
Desire for comfort
Hope to better one’s condition through work

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Hobbes outlines nineteen Laws of Nature by which men can escape the state of nature, the first three being the most important
First law: ‘that every man ought to endeavour Peace, as far as he has hope of obtaining it; and when he cannot obtain it, that he may seek, and use, all helps, and advantages of war’.
Second law: ‘a man be willing, when others are so too, as far-forth as for peace and defence of himself he shall think it necessary, to lay down this right to all things; and be contented with so much liberty against other men as he would allow other men against himself’
Third law: ‘that men perform their covenants made’
 In short, that man must seek peace, sacrifice some liberty for security , and keep his promises, respectively, to escape the state of nature

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Montesquieu and Rousseau argue that the state of nature that Hobbes perceives is not of the natural man, but the socialised man. Thus, any problems that the socialised man creates is a result of nature, as well as/instead of, nurture.
Hoekstra argues that Hobbes’ assertion that right and wrong doesn’t exist in the state of nature is wrong. ‘[T]he requirements of morality, would not apply outside of [any] commonwealth’

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‘Political orders are kept secure not only by means of distance from what would destroy them, but sometimes by means of proximity thereto: for those who think on behalf of the political order must continue causes of fear, that the citizens may be on guard and like sentries at night not relax their watch, and they must make what is distant appear to be at hand.’

 Men want release from a state of nature because of fear of death, desire for comfort, and to better one’s condition through work
 Men attain release from a state of nature by entering into a social contract, or covenant, whereby the powerful Leviathan uses force to ensure subjects are not in a permanent state of bellum omnium contra omnes (war of all against all (De Cive))