Women are in the Same State of Nature as Men

Women live in the same state of nature as men Hobbes’ understanding of human nature and the state of nature is not gender-biassed. Although his syntax is male oriented, I believe that Hobbes thought of men and women as having the same nature. That is, in the absence of an authority figure, both sexes would have a “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short” (316) life. I propose that Hobbes’ “three principal causes of quarrel. First, competition; …

…the theory. Women’s aspirations force them into conflict brought on by competition, diffidence and glory. Their state of nature is thus prone to being solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short lived. The extent to which a sovereign or authority power actually mitigates the theoretically miserable condition of our state of nature is, however, debatable. WORKS CITED Hobbes. “The Leviathan.” Classics in Political Philosophy. Ed. Jene M. Porter. Scarborough: Prentice Hall Canada Inc., 1989. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ **Bibliography**