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Philosophy of Fear

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Philosophy of Fear
Philosophy of Fear In the pure state of nature, all humans are of equal mind and body, meaning that no one has a distinct advantage or disadvantage against another. The state of nature is also referred to as the state of war in which every man will fight and try to protect what they deem as theirs. Thomas Hobbes, a seventeenth century philosopher, described this as bellum omnium contra onmes, meaning the war of all against all. Due to everyone attempting to fight everyone else to stay alive in a pure state of nature, societies and civilizations cannot form. So is there a way to keep the peace and let mankind develop into its full potential? Hobbes uses an idea of giving up individual powers to one person or an assembly of men as in the form of sovereignty. The sovereignty will be able enforce the peace with unlimited power. The sovereignty acquires these powers as individuals give up particular freedoms. The extent of forfeited rights is to a level such as permitted by everyone in the society and the individuals must be tolerable of the sovereignty still possessing these rights. If individuals wanted to keep all of their given rights, then they would maintain rights to kill, steal, and lie. These are three severe issues when trying to form a peaceful world. If these rights are given up by individuals to sovereignty then a society can begin to form. Once the society begins to form the sovereignty will make decisions based on the best interest of the people that have joined together. For cultures to exist you need to not doubt every person’s actions and have faith that they will honor whatever contract they have agreed to. The sovereignty has a contract with the people to protect them and the people must keep the contract of giving up their rights to the sovereignty. The people also have a contract with each other to surrender the same rights to the sovereignty. Without this reliance on your fellow men, there can be no justice and therefore no
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