Comment on the State of Nature as State of War (Hobbes) in 150 words
How the answer moves
The flow snapshot — the routes in, the body, the counter-view and the routes out.
Route 1 state of nature = hypothetical pre-political condition → no common power, law or judge → therefore a state of war
Route 2 start from human nature → equality to harm/kill + scarcity + endless desire → war is the natural result
no common authority → natural equality of vulnerability + scarcity + unlimited desire → everyone a threat to everyone → three causes of quarrel: competition, diffidence, glory → “war of every man against every man” → war as known disposition, not actual fighting → consequences: no justice/industry/arts → force and fraud become virtues → life “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short”
war is not perpetual battle → it is the known disposition to violence while no assurance of safety exists → qualifies “state of war” without reducing its danger
Route 1 self-preservation impossible in this condition → security requires a common coercive power
Route 2 order placed before unrestrained liberty → all judgement surrendered to the Leviathan
Model answer
Handwritten, in the form it would be written in the examination hall.
Also asked on this head
Western Political Thought — 27 questions in the Vault.
- Hannah Arendt analysed a few categories of vita activa. Explain.
- Marx’s concept of ‘alienation’ is an essential part of the reality in capitalism. Explain.
- Discuss Karl Marx’s concept of class.
How this is taught
The same flow snapshot, built for every head of the syllabus, with the answer written in class.
The first session of Foundation 2027 is published in full.
Six programmes across three levels.