Thomas Hobbes was an English philosopher, who was best known for his work in political philosophy. Hobbes theory rests his beliefs on human and social nature, comparing and relating moral properties such as goodness and badness to natural properties like desire and pleasure also known as an ‘ethical naturalist’. His novel ‘Leviathan’ discovered and explored the ideas of the social contract theory.
So before understanding Hobbes weather analogy, we must first understand what he means when he mentions his concept about the ‘war of all against all’. This concept does not necessarily mean that is a war between to adversaries fighting but more so, an anarchy where everyone is fights against everyone for their interest and beliefs. Hobbes states that all men are equal in power regardless of their size “men are made equal in the faculties of body and mind; as that though there be found one man sometimes manifestly stronger in the body, or of quicker mind than another” (Hobbes, 1651). While some individuals maybe bigger in size, the smaller and weaker can compensate by using their mind or forming alliances with others. Thomas Hobbes claims that competition, diffidence and glory are the three reasons as to why there is so much controversy and conflict in the ‘state of nature’. “The first maketh men invade for
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This weather analogy is a metaphor, which means that the ‘state of war’ isn’t an event that is discretely kept, but rather a stretch over a period of time which is similar to saying that if we had rain for an entire week, it would not merely mean talking about rain over a one or two day period but a stretch over time. Hobbes also mentions, “One wet day does not make a period of bad weather” meaning that society is not progressing forward and improvements in cultural civilisation are to be