State of nature

The state of nature is a concept used in moral and political philosophy, religion, social contract theories and international law to denote the hypothetical conditions of what the lives of people might have been like before societies came into existence. Philosophers of the state of nature theory deduce that there must have been a time before organized societies existed, and this presumption thus raises questions such as: 'What was life like before civil society?'; 'How did government first emerge from such a starting position?,' and; 'What are the hypothetical reasons for entering a state of society by establishing a nation-state?'. 'In the beginning of human life, when there was yet no law and government, the custom was 'everybody according to his rule (yi, 義).' Accordingly each man had his own rule, two men had two different rules and ten men had ten different rules -- the more people the more different notions. And everybody approved his own moral views and disapproved the views of others, and so arose mutual disapproval among men. As a result, father and son and elder and younger brothers became enemies and were estranged from each other, since they were unable to reach any agreement. Everybody worked for the disadvantage of the others with water, fire, and poison. Surplus energy was not spent for mutual aid; surplus goods were allowed to rot without sharing; excellent teachings (dao, 道) were kept secret and not revealed.' Chapter 3 - 1 The state of nature is a concept used in moral and political philosophy, religion, social contract theories and international law to denote the hypothetical conditions of what the lives of people might have been like before societies came into existence. Philosophers of the state of nature theory deduce that there must have been a time before organized societies existed, and this presumption thus raises questions such as: 'What was life like before civil society?'; 'How did government first emerge from such a starting position?,' and; 'What are the hypothetical reasons for entering a state of society by establishing a nation-state?'. In some versions of social contract theory, there are no rights in the state of nature, only freedoms, and it is the contract that creates rights and obligations. In other versions the opposite occurs: the contract imposes restrictions upon individuals that curtail their natural rights. Societies existing before or without a political state are currently studied in such fields as paleolithic history, and the anthropological subfields of archaeology, cultural anthropology, social anthropology, and ethnology, which investigate the social and power-related structures of indigenous and uncontacted peoples living in tribal communities. The early Warring States philosopher Mozi was the first thinker in history to develop the idea of the state of nature. He developed the idea to defend the need for a single overall ruler. According to Mozi, in the state of nature each person has their own moral rules (yi, 義). As a result, people were unable to reach agreements and resources were wasted. Since Mozi promoted ways of strengthening and unifying the state, (li, 利) such natural dis-organization was rejected: His proposal was to unify rules according to a single moral system or standard (fa, 法) that can be used by anyone: calculating benefit of each act. In that way, the ruler of the state and his subjects will have the same moral system; cooperation and joint efforts will be the rule. Later his proposal was strongly rejected by confucianism (especially Mencius) because of the preference of benefit over morals. The pure state of nature, or 'the natural condition of mankind', was described by the 17th century English philosopher Thomas Hobbes in Leviathan and his earlier work De Cive. Hobbes argued that natural inequalities between humans are not so great as to give anyone clear superiority; and thus all must live in constant fear of loss or violence; so 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 man'. In this state, every person has a natural right to do anything one thinks necessary for preserving one's own life, and life is 'solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short' (Leviathan, Chapters XIII–XIV). Hobbes described this natural condition with the Latin phrase (bellum omnium contra omnes) meaning (war of all against all), in De Cive. Within the state of nature, there is neither personal property nor injustice since there is no law, except for certain natural precepts discovered by reason ('laws of nature'): the first of which is 'that every man ought to endeavour peace, as far as he has hope of obtaining it' (Leviathan, Ch. XIV); and the second is 'that a man be willing, when others are so too, as far forth as for peace and defence of himself he shall think it necessary, to lay down this right to all things; and be contented with so much liberty against other men as he would allow other men against himself' (loc. cit.). From here, Hobbes develops the way out of the state of nature into political society and government by mutual contracts. According to Hobbes, the state of nature exists at all times among independent countries, over whom there is no law except for those same precepts or laws of nature (Leviathan, Chapters XIII, XXX end). His view of the state of nature helped to serve as a basis for theories of international law and relations and even some theories about domestic relations. John Locke considers the state of nature in his Second Treatise on Civil Government written around the time of the Exclusion Crisis in England during the 1680s. For Locke, in the state of nature all men are free 'to order their actions, and dispose of their possessions and persons, as they think fit, within the bounds of the law of nature.' (2nd Tr., §4). 'The state of Nature has a law of Nature to govern it', and that law is reason. Locke believes that reason teaches that 'no one ought to harm another in his life, liberty, and or property' (2nd Tr., §6) ; and that transgressions of this may be punished. Locke describes the state of nature and civil society to be opposites of each other, and the need for civil society comes in part from the perpetual existence of the state of nature. This view of the state of nature is partly deduced from Christian belief (unlike Hobbes, whose philosophy is not dependent upon any prior theology).