Hobbes & the State of Nature
Nasty, brutish, and short -- but ultimately perpetual peace?!
John Gray says something in his book and in online conservation, about Hobbes and the state of nature, that it was the anarchic conditions under which Hobbes lived, during the English Civil Wars and the Thirty Years War of religion in Europe, that caused Hobbes to worry about what happened between human beings when political order broke down.
Unlike some later political thought, where the “state of nature” becomes a sort of abstract or ideal primordial state when human beings can come together equally and rationally to “make a decision” about the kind of political system they would all be willing to live under — Hobbes’ idea was completely grounded both practically and historically in real life.
Hobbes was also writing during a time, and in the company of many other famous early modern thinkers (Bacon, Descartes, Spinoza, Galileo), when there was great intellectual ferment against some of the old Scholastic and Aristotelian ideas coming out of the Middle Ages. Hobbes and his fellow thinkers were impressed with modern science and with the need to look closely and empirically at what actually went on in the world, including in human nature. Hobbes was willing to debunk archaic notions that he did not see actually occurring.
Today I discovered the video linked below, a lecture from 2015 by a professor of political thought, Devin Stauffer. Prof. Stauffer clearly and compellingly explains Hobbes’ views on the state of nature in the context of his times and how Hobbes was not only realistic and pessimistic about humans, but also ultimately optimistic and hopeful that it would be possible to construct a political system — imagine it, sort it out, work for it — in such a way that society and civilization as such could escape catastrophe. One might even look forward to perpetual peace on earth.
I urge a listen. Speed it up to 1.25x if you like. Recommended.
By the way, the famous Chapter 13 of Leviathan “nasty, brutish, and short” is not long and definitely a worthwhile read.
