Repositioning Thomas Hobbes's State of Nature as Grounded in Leviathan (1968)

This paper centers on the contributions and legacies of Thomas Hobbes’s Leviathan to political philosophy and contemporary discourses. It addresses issues concerning the pre-social and/or political situations experienced by mankind in the state of nature. Hobbes’s version of a pre-socio political life is considered as short-lived, since it is characterized by pride, brutality, and anti-sociality, which contribute in disconnecting man from nature and affecting other fellow humans adversely. Persuasions and facts portrayed by proponents of the state of nature such as Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, among others, constitute tenable features of political philosophy. Using a Hobbesian approach, it thoroughly scrutinizes man’s nature in the natural state, coupled with an exposure of the existential conditions prior to the establishment of a commonwealth or political society based on a social contract.