Machiavelli argued against this Platonic philosophy. ... This is in stark contrast to the Platonic philosophy when man existed to serve the state, the basic idea being that ethics and politics are intertwined, its essential features overlapping. ...
In the Leviathan and the Second Treatise of Civil Government, Hobbes and Locke, respectively, both ground their political philosophies at the same location: the state of nature, meaning the natural condition of mankind prior to any artifice such as government. ... Maintaining the theory that in order to preserve life (avoid the state of nature) natural man must strive for peace, Hobbes then constructs the first law of nature, "That every man, ought to endeavour Peace, as far as he can hope of obtaining it; and when he cannot obtain it, that he may seek, and use, all helps and advantages of w...