state of nature essays

state of nature essays The period of the Renaissance and Enlightenment was perhaps the greatest turning point in the course of human progress. The flame of reason and human endeavor, which had all but burnt out over the previous one thousand years, was rekindled, and a great many people became inspired with a renewed passion for the pursuit of knowledge. As a result of this, great strides were made in many fields such as the study of science, art, literature, and philosophy. There was one aspect of this new age which was characteristic of all fields of study however, and that was the idea that the human being is a creature of immense faculties, great ability and endless potential in both constructive and destructive endeavors. As a result of this humanistic movement of the 16th and 17th centuries, many thinkers tried to understand humans more thoroughly by determining what basic characteristics are inherent in all men and women. More specifically, they tried to determine how and why humans evolved to form civilized societies, and what motivated them to do so. In addition, as a continuation of the work done by pre-enlightenment thinkers such as Aristotle and St. Thomas Aquinas, scholars debated as to whether or not humans were naturally endowed with the faculty of reason, morality, and whether humans had any natural rights. Determining how humans exist in a state of nature became an important factor in determining why man evolved to form civilized society. John Locke and Thomas Hobbes were two great thinkers of this time who formed radically contrasting theories about the state of nature and mankinds emergence from it. This paper will look at Hobbes Leviathan and Lockes Second Treatise of Government to de termine what each author conceived the state of nature to be. When confronted with the idea of humans in a state of nature, many will automatically associate the idea with a Robinson Crusoe or even a Tarzan-like scenario, where man is c...