State of nature
Topic: Political Theory: Freedom and Rights · NCERT: Beyond NCERT
Meaning
The state of nature is the imagined condition of human life before any government existed. Social contract thinkers use it to explain why people would agree to form a state. Hobbes, in Leviathan (1651), pictured a "war of all against all", where life is "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short". Locke, in Two Treatises (1689), thought people already had natural rights to life, liberty and property, but had no reliable way to enforce them.
Example
Each picture leads to a different kind of state. Hobbes's fear led him to support an absolute sovereign (a ruler with unlimited power). Locke's view led to limited government based on consent, with a right to resist. Locke's ideas are echoed in the US Declaration of Independence (1776).
Don't confuse with
- Social contract: the state of nature is the condition before government. The social contract is the agreement people make to leave that condition and create a state.