Ethics

The desire for survival and felicity consume every thought and motivate every action, leading to events such as murdering an elderly woman for nothing more than a piece of bread. One would assume that necessary and horrid actions like this could only be committed by one with a heart as cold as ice. Although, in this retched reality, compassion and a conscience will only lead to ones inevitable and certain death. One does not simply live, but fights through what seems to be an endless power struggle. Even parents are nothing more than mere competition. The scarcities of resources that are so abundant in modern day society, such as food, drive the masses into a state of self-interest. All of this chaos can be accredited to the fact that this is a society with no government. This is a glimpse of the state of nature through the eyes of Thomas Hobbes. I will argue that when Thomas Hobbes blames this chaotic war of all against all in the state of nature, on the cruel nature of human beings, he is not entirely giving rational explanations, such as his assumption of equality and self-interest. He claims that in the state of nature all humans are equal, although a baby is not equal to an adult and a baby cannot compete with an adult for survival. The baby needs compassion and caring from the parent to survive inadvertently creating trust, so if Hobbes was right, there is a major probability that there would be no future generation because all of the children and babies would die fighting for survival against the adults.

This necessary relationship between parent and a child portray elements that are anything but cruel, but rather kindheartedness and the opposite of self-interested. This portrays flaws in Hobbes assumptions necessary for his view of the state of nature, proving that there must be caring of others and that there is not a possibility of complete equality. More importantly this relationship supports the fact that humans will not be solitary in the state of...