The nature of Human beings:

Hobbes is one of the first philosophers to

introduce the idea of a state of nature For Hobbes, Man is not a naturally sociable animal; he is an animal by nature, but not sociable by nature: Being sociable is just a coincidence.

 Hobbes argues that he first state of Man is a state of

equality : Same desires ,same rights, same means nature has made man equal in the faculties of body and mind The first instinct was that of self-preservation Self-preservation requires using natural resources and - if necessary - using force to take them from others. Conflict is inevitable. Each one desires, legitimately, what is good for him and struggles to achieve it through conflict. In the state of nature rights are achieved through war.

The state of nature

 Hobbes argues that the state of nature cant continue

for a long time because the war of all against all threatens humanity. Fear from death and the desire of preservation is the only motive that saves human beings: In order to subsist, Human beings need to leave the state of nature. Hobbes distinguishes the law of nature(the rules that tell us how to preserve ourselves) from the right of nature - our freedom to do anything (including killing and eating others) that seems necessary to this end.

 Natural law commanded people to seek peace as the

readiest way to personal security. However, until civil society was created the state of nature was a state of war The seek of peace pushes human being to establish a social contract
They sacrifice many of their rights in order to preserve

the very essential right of survival; they accordingly have to offer all the powers to the sovereign For Hobbes the state is a gigantic monster ( Leviathan) that possesses all the powers and authority . ( support of absolutism...)

The Social Contract

Human beings sacrifice many of their rights in order

to preserve the very essential right of survival; they accordingly have to offer all the powers to the sovereign Each of us is morally obligated to obey the sovereign
This is necessary since it prevents us from slipping back

into the State of Nature and the war of each against all

Sovereign can do anything except taking our life There is no such thing as an unjust law For Hobbes the state is a gigantic monster ( Leviathan) that possesses all the powers and authority . ( support of absolutism...)

Comparing Hobbes to other philosophers:

Hobbes studied Aristotle for long but he rejected most of

his ideas. He rejected the Aristotelian idea which states that human beings are social animals. He argues that human beings in the beginning are animals by nature and only after a long state of war and insecurity that they could establish a social contract. On the contrary , Hobbes seems to draw much from Socrates ideas on the study of nature; a study of the nature of human beings should precede any study of nature.

Quotations from Leviathan :

...At first, it is peculiar to the nature of Man to be

inquisitive into the causes of the events they see, some more, some less; but all men so much, as to be curious in the search of the causes of their own good and evil fortune... Leviathan p 99 ... For he that from any effect he seeth come to passe, should reason to the next and immediate cause, and plunge himself profoundly in the pursuit of causes; shall at last come to this, that there must be ... One first mover ... That which men mean by the name of God...

 ... Whatsoever we imagine is finite. Therefore there is

no idea, or conception of anything we call finite. No man can have in his mind an image of finite magnitude; nor conceive infinite swiftness, infinite time, or infinite force, or infinite power... Leviathan (p 168) For as long as every man holds this right of doing anything he likes, so long are all men in the condition of war. But if other men will not lay down their right as well as he, for that were to expose himself to prey, which no man is bound to, rather than to dispose himself to peace. This is that law of the Gospel: whatsoever you require that others should do to you, that do ye to them. And that law of all men