The imagined pre-political condition of humanity (violent, free, or virtuous depending on the thinker) contrasted with organized civil society.
In lecture order, as Marci Shore presents each view. The time opens that minute of the lecture on YouTube.
Hobbes's state of nature means permanent war: greed, self-interest and the appetite for power and wealth set everyone against everyone, in unending terror.
Put simply Hobbes: imagine people before any government (his "state of nature"). Greed, self-interest and the hunger for power and wealth would set everyone against everyone, in endless war and terror.
For Locke, people in the natural state were free and equal, not at war; government arises gradually, after they have worked the land, acquired property and want it protected.
Put simply Locke: before government, people were free and equal, not at war (his "state of nature"). Government grew gradually, once people had worked the land, owned property and wanted it protected.
Rousseau's natural human was virtuous and compassionate; property and society made people vain, selfish and competitive, and there is no road back to that lost condition.
In the text In Part One of the Discourse on Inequality (1755), Rousseau writes that men in the state of nature "could not be either good or bad, virtuous or vicious", and calls pity "the only natural virtue".
Joining the Enlightenment debate, Freud grants that the state of nature is genuinely free and liberating, but that freedom comes with a great deal of violence and aggression.
Put simply Freud: life before organized society (the "state of nature") really is free and liberating, but that freedom comes with a great deal of violence and aggression.
Human aggression is a standing threat to any society, so living together means constantly suppressing it; the hostility we cannot aim at others gets turned back on ourselves.
Put simply Freud: human aggression is a constant threat to any society, so living together means always holding it down. The hostility we cannot aim at others gets turned back on ourselves.
The prohibition on incest belongs to the earliest, most primordial taboos, laid down as culture first separated itself from nature.
Put simply Freud: the ban on incest is one of the very first taboos, laid down as human culture first broke away from nature.
4 links between claims that both use the term. Each shows the earlier claim, then the later one that answers it. “Our inference” marks a link Shore does not state outright.
HobbesHobbes's state of nature means permanent war: greed, self-interest and the appetite for power and wealth set everyone against everyone, in unending terror. L2 · 19:29
LockeFor Locke, people in the natural state were free and equal, not at war; government arises gradually, after they have worked the land, acquired property and want it protected. L2 · 21:17
Replaces Hobbes's violent state of war with natural equality and freedom as humanity's starting condition.
LockeFor Locke, people in the natural state were free and equal, not at war; government arises gradually, after they have worked the land, acquired property and want it protected. L2 · 21:17
RousseauRousseau's natural human was virtuous and compassionate; property and society made people vain, selfish and competitive, and there is no road back to that lost condition. L2 · 32:02
Turns Locke's account of property as protective and legitimate into the very source of corruption and inequality.Our inference
HobbesHobbes's state of nature means permanent war: greed, self-interest and the appetite for power and wealth set everyone against everyone, in unending terror. L2 · 19:29
FreudJoining the Enlightenment debate, Freud grants that the state of nature is genuinely free and liberating, but that freedom comes with a great deal of violence and aggression. L9 · 42:58
A violent state of nature; happiness traded for security, as in Hobbes
RousseauRousseau's natural human was virtuous and compassionate; property and society made people vain, selfish and competitive, and there is no road back to that lost condition. L2 · 32:02
FreudJoining the Enlightenment debate, Freud grants that the state of nature is genuinely free and liberating, but that freedom comes with a great deal of violence and aggression. L9 · 42:58
Society still costs us our nature, but nature was violent, not virtuous
Terms that appear in the same claims.