Leviathan: Chapter 13 Summary & Analysis

All people are made equal in nature. Hobbes admits that some people are stronger or quicker than others, but when considered collectively, such differences are insignificant and not enough for one person to claim superiority over another. Hobbes also admits that some people have more prudence and experience than others; however, this, too, suggests people are more equal than not, since with equal time and experience, people can claim equal prudence.

A definite difference in people is that one person usually finds their own wisdom greater than the next person’s, but since all people generally think this way, Hobbes considers it yet another point of similarity. An equal hope of obtaining some end arises from this equal ability. When two people desire the same object and only one can have it, those two people are enemies, and the destruction of the other is included in their desired end. In this way, the only way one can secure their own conservation is to master as many people as possible to eliminate any power that may endanger them.

In nature, people have no desire to keep company where there is no power to control them. Thus, it is in human nature to fight for three general reasons. First, people fight for competition. They invade others and use violence to master other people and animals. Secondly, people fight because of a need to defend their safety. Thirdly, people fight for glory and reputation, which includes small slights, like minor insults and affronts. People living outside an established and common power are in a state of war, and this state of war includes every person against every person. War, according to Hobbes, does not include only battle, but also the intention or desire for battle. Every other state is known as peace.

In nature, there is no industry, no certainty, and no culture. There is no knowledge of science, letters, or arts, and there is no accounting of time. In nature, there is only constant fear and the danger of violence, which makes people “solitary, poore, nasty, brutish, and short.” It may seem strange to some that nature renders all people savage, but one must only look to their own actions in society for confirmation of such savagery. Before one travels, they arm themselves and make sure they are accompanied, and when they go to bed at night, they lock the doors of their homes. People take such precautions even with rules, laws, and officers tasked specifically with their physical safety and that of their property.

The desires and passions that produce such savagery in people is in itself no sin, nor are the actions that come from such passions. Actions are only considered a sin when they go against some established law, and such laws cannot be established without first electing someone to make and enact them. Thus, nothing in nature is unjust, as the notions of right and wrong and justice and injustice do not exist in nature. Where there is no common power, there can be no common law; and where there is no common law, there can be no injustice.

Passions that predispose people to peace include the fear of death, the desire for things that are necessary for life (like food and shelter), and the hope to obtain such vital necessities. People are drawn to agreements or contracts that ensure peace, which Hobbes refers to as the Laws of Nature.