Hobbes Human Nature Analysis

T. Hobbes: The essentials of human nature.
After reading the writings of Hobbes about the nature of humans and their attitudes towards each other in the State of Nature, it may be concluded that Hobbes has a pretty pessimistic opinion about them. However, this impression made by Hobbes may be considered both true and false. It may seem true, because in the condition of the State of Nature (in other words, the condition of “perpetual War”) he always describes people as bloodthirsty and selfish creatures, always inclined towards seeking power, getting honor, waging wars and using violence - all the qualities of which nowadays are seen negatively by us. However, from the other hand, the same impression is also false, because Hobbes is underlying

According to Hobbes, in the nature of man, we find three principal causes of discord: first, competition, second, distrust and third, glory (185). I have already clarified the correlation of competition and distrust in the previous paragraph, now I will describe how come glory makes people’s lives insecure in the State of Nature. People are naturally self-centered creatures, who expect some respect from others in order to gain this or another kind of glory or reputation. When there is no authority to regulate people, glory is the tool of gaining more power and, thus, it creates at least some sort of security from other people. For instance, people known for their strength and cruelty will not be easily attacked by other people out of fear of being severely punished. Hence, gaining high value from other people is naturally necessary for one’s own security. However, at some point, people manage to gain so much of glory, for example, when financial standing and the status of a person reach its peak, that they become obsessed with it, wanting more than their security requires (185). This leads to the manifestation of their power in the acts of conquest and gaining new reputation of subduing others, making people fear. People, who are, in turn, also concerned with their own glory and security, would mind to give up before this conqueror, thus, leading to a war. Once a person becomes the victor in this war, he will sooner or later become the same arrogant conqueror, leading to the next similar war and, thus, creating a vicious circle. This happens simply because the victor is also subjected to the nature of human beings, namely, to the sense of self-ınterest and arrogance, which dictates that after his victory he will consider himself more superior to others and will exploit his new position for his own benefit. Therefore, Hobbes is also right about glory, which is also an