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My passion is ...

learning.

My parents always told me ...

to question the things I wasn't sure about. And to question the things I was sure about even more.

What I am reading/watching/listening to ...

plenty of history at the moment.

Politics, News & Issues > Political & Economic Theory The "state of nature" in Thomas Hobbes' political philosophy

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What role does the state of nature play in Hobbes's political thinking?

The state of nature is an idea used by many political philosophers as a comparison between alternatives. Sommerville asserts that "For most theoristsit was perfectly sensible to ask what things had been like before people consented to live together under governments- or what they would be like if people had not in fact consented to live in this way." Indeed Sommerville even goes as far as to say, "there was nothing particularly novel about the term or the concept of the state of nature." , citing that other thinke...

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