Nature made people so equal in physical and mental abilities that, while there might be some differences, overall, no one can claim a significant advantage. Even the (physically) weakest can pose a threat to the strongest through cunningness or through alliance. In terms of mental faculties, prudence is simply experience; and men will get an equal amount of that in an equal period of time spent on things that they equally apply themselves to.

This equality of ability produces equality of hope for attaining our goals. So, if two men want the same thing which they both can’t enjoy, they become enemies; each of them on the way to their goal tries to destroy or subdue the other.

Due to distrust, the safest strategy becomes preemptive strikes to subdue others and ensure one’s survival. This pursuit of power, beyond what is necessary for security, can escalate tensions and prompt further invasions. The desire for recognition and value among peers also drives conflict.

For example, when someone comes to possess a possession through hard work, if an invader has nothing to fear but the one’s individual power, there will probably be an invader— someone who comes with united forces to deprive them not only of the fruit of their labor but also of their life or liberty. And the successful invader will then be in similar danger from someone else.

In nature of men, there are 3 principal causes of discord. First • competition, people use violence to make themselves masters of other people, their families and their property. Secondly • distrust: violence in name of defending themselves, families and property. Thirdly, for glory.

Competition, distrust and glory lead men to a state of anarchy: every man against every man. resulting in a life marked by fear, danger, leading to a solitary, impoverished, brutal, and short existence. Similar is the result of a time when men live with no other security but their own.

Hereby it is manifest that during the time men live without a common Power to keep them all in awe, they are in that condition which is called War*; and such a war as is of every man against every man. In such condition there is no place for Industry, because the fruit thereof is uncertain: and consequently no Culture of the Earth; no Navigation, nor use of the commodities that may be imported by Sea; no commodious Building; no Instruments of moving and removing such things as require much force; no Knowledge of the face of the Earth; no account of Time; no Arts; no Letters; no Society; and which is worst of all, continual Fear, and danger of violent death; And the life of man solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short. Chapter 13 https://www.bartleby.com/lit-hub/hc/of-man-being-the-first-part-of-leviathan/chapter-xiii-10/

Before we judge such men, we must think of current day actions, like locking doors at night, or carrying a safety weapon on journeys. They reveal a fundamental distrust we have in others.

These desires and other passions of men aren’t inherently sinful. Nor are actions that come from those passions,

In such a state of war, the desires and passions of individuals are not inherently sinful; In this war of every man against every man nothing can be unjust. The notions of right and wrong, justice and injustice have no place. In war the two chief virtues are force and fraud. There is no such thing as ownership, no legal control, no distinction between mine and thine. Rather, anything that a man can get is his for as long as he can keep it.

While men find themselves only sometimes in such a state of war with one another, this is how governments, kings and states relate to one another at all times. They are always in the state of anarchy.

Man can extricate himself from this state, partly through his •passions, partly through his •reason. The passions that incline men to peace are •fear of death, •desire for things that are necessary for comfortable living, and a •hope to obtain these by hard work. And reason suggests convenient items in a peace treaty that men may be got to agree on.

Commentary

Hobbes’s justification for the state, emerging as a necessary response to natural anarchy, is based on the following assumptions:

  • the natural condition of humans is war of every man against another, but this is not always the case. Natural contiditon of humans also includes community, peace, based on consensus without escalating to conflict.
  • to be governed by the state is better than anarchy, but the creation of state brings its own disadvantages, such as heirarchies, inequality, etc. In fact, many anarchists believe the opposite

    we must not hastily conclude that the mischiefs of anarchy are worse than those which government is qualified to produce. (Godwin 1793: bk VII, chap. V, p. 736)

    The government of man by man (under whatever name it be disguised) is oppression. Society finds its highest perfection in the union of order with anarchy. (Proudhon 1840 [1876: 286])

  • every person in a society Hobbes argues that one would never submit to a sovereign state power unless one sees an advantage over the way of life that one would lead in conditions of natural liberty, namely the state of anarchy where every person is against every other. The holders of power have a number of specific obligations:

    “in such a way as to produce the peace and the security of the people and to do so by way of conducting government in a manner agreeable to the common good”