The State of Nature
The principal parts of philosophy are two: For two chief kinds of bodies, and very
different from one another, offer themselves to such as search after their generation and
properties; one whereof being the work of nature, is called a natural body, the other is
called a commonwealth, and is made by the wills and agreement of men.
- Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan (1651)
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 war; and such a war, as is of
every man, against every man ... . 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 commodious
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 fear, and danger of violent death: and the life of
man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short ... .
- Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan
Do people have rights, just as people, outside the political state? Do we have rights as creatures of God in the state of nature?
According to Thomas Hobbes, a person's life in the state of nature, before he or she comes together with other people to form a society, is poor, nasty, so1itary, brutish and short-- a war of all against all. To escape this precarious situation, people form a social contract whereby they give up their freedom to a sovereign, and this freedom cannot be regained, for the sovereign is not bound by the contract. The contract is among the common people who agree among themselves to give over the right to govern to the sovereign. In the state of nature, then, Hobbes said, people have no real rights, except ,perhaps, for self- defense. They gain what rights they have from the sovereign.
John Locke (1632-1704), on the other hand, believed that men and women, simply in virtue of being creatures of God, have rights-rights to life, liberty, and property. When Thomas Jefferson got hold of this idea, he revised it to read: "All men are endowed by thelr creator with certain inalienable rights, among them life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." So the question is whether people have rights in the state of nature. Hobbes thought not-- we get our rights by entering into a social contract. Locke (and Jefferson) believed that we have God-given rights which governments are meant to preserve, and of course the Declaration of Independence expresses the revolutionary idea that when a government fails to preserve those rights, men have a duty to overthrow it!
Locke and Jefferson believed that we make a thing our property by investing our labor in it. God invested His labor in us, and we are His. So, anyone who tries to usurp our self-government is stealing, so to speak, from God!
Where do our rights come from?
Bibliography
Hobbes, Thomas. Leviathan, The Liberal Arts Press, Inc., New York, 1958.