Hobbes notes that there are three natural causes of conflict among people in the state of nature: distrust of one another, competition for limited resources, and glory (to preserve one's reputation): "So that in the nature of man, we find three principle causes of quarrel. First, Competition; Secondly, Diffidence; Thirdly, Glory. ... (Leviathan) The state of nature beholds natural man's struggle between fear and power, in which power is the instigator of all human misery, and fear is man's only savior. ... The appetite to achieve power is also a central concept, Hobbes wri...

• Word Count: 4512
• Approx Pages: 18
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

In this state, men's roughly equal "natural power," insatiably acquisitive nature for power and "glory," accompanied by limited resources, lead to competition: "if any two men desire the same thing, which nevertheless they cannot both enjoy, they become enemies" (Hobbes, 4, 8, 7). ... According to Hobbes, egocentric motions without reasonable restrictions implant disparaging power that brings men to war. ... Despites a similar conclusion to Hobbes's, Smith does not insist on the destructive power of self-interest towards mankind's existence. ... In...

• Word Count: 1845
• Approx Pages: 7
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

And thus, in the state of Nature, one man comes by a power over another, but yet no absolute or arbitrary power to use a criminal, when he has got him in his hands, according to the passionate heats or boundless extravagancy of his own will, but only to retribute to him so far as calm reason and conscience dictate, what is proportionate to his transgression, which is so much as may serve for reparation and restraint. ... The legislative authority by which they are in force over the subjects of that commonwealth hath no power over him. Those who have the supreme power of making laws in England,...

• Word Count: 7672
• Approx Pages: 31
• Grade Level: Undergraduate