“How would I and my fellow human beings behave if we were to find ourselves in a state of nature, and what does this behaviour tell us about our innate predispositions ?” (Thomas Hobbes).(UPSC CSE Mains 2016 - Political Science and International Relations, Paper 1)
- State of nature is a hypothetical concept, which deduces what kind of situation would have prevailed before the evolution of organised society. It has been widely used by political philosophers to understand the origins of state and their nature.
- Thomas Hobbes had witnessed the Puritan revolution of 1640''s. It was chaotic, anarchistic and riots. It ended with the beheading of the monarch. This even had lasting impact on Hobbes. His main work Leviathan establishes an all-powerful state, whose main aim is to provide security and stability.
- Hobbes is considered as the modern and scientific thinker. He made most of his observations on the basis of scientific and analytic thinking of that age. His analysis of human behaviour was also made on that basis.
- Based on the scientific idea of that time that all matter was compressed of particles Hobbes concludes that human behaviour is controlled by the moment of particles in individual''s mind. He deduced two types of reactions,
- Liking or love: external stimuli which causes pleasure is sought more by the human mind
- Disliking or aversion: stimuli that causes pain or avoided by the human mind
- He concluded that since an individual is only able to comprehend the movement of particles in his brain, he won''t be able to understand the feelings of others. Thus, he felt man''s innate predispositions were to be self-centred, greedy, highly individualistic, pleasure seeking and pain averse.
- His further analysis that man would seek power for security. Is decide to seek security wood fuel and competitive race with no end. Thus, the state of nature was a state of uncertainty and pain. Hobbes concluded that life was shot brutish and violent in the state of nature. To him, there was no scope for letters, navigation or industry.
- Though most modern states perform welfare functions, there is no denial that rule of law, security and stability are basic for any advancement in civilization.
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