THE STATE OF NATURE
“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 Warre; and such a Warre, as is of every man, against every men…
Whatsoever therefore is the consequent to a time of War, where every man is Enemy to every man; the same is consequent to the time, wherein men live without other security, than what their own strength, and their own invention shall furnish them withall. 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 commodities 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 feare, and danger of violent death; And the life of man, solitary, poore, nasty, brutish, and short.”
According to Hobbes, the state of nature he described and supposed to be men’s condition when they have no sovereign over them. He did mean to assert that men have ever actually lived in such a condition without any form of government or society and he did mean that he obviously altogether mistaken, since as far back as we go in human history we find evidence of social and communal living.
Hobbes himself expressed himself very loosely on this point because he was not much