State of Nature: What would happen?

[athenaofstarlite]

Following in the footsteps of Renaissance humanists, philosophers of the 18th century pondered what would happen if man was thrust into a state with no government or society. What do you believe would happen?

[Mighty Aramir]

At first, a human raised in a previous society would go hectic depending on his personality. Mayhem at first would be certain, but as hunger and other needs grow, so will the crave for company, for a mere human will die from its lonelyness, wether he decides to starve or kill himself, humans are dependant beings, they need to be more than one in order to feel confident. they still believe in the power of the masses, which wouldn't be proper in this case, in any case actually. What mankind has still to realize is the power of wisdom, of knowledge, and their ability to make us advance and survive (damn antropocentrist thought). therefore a human without society isnt a human in its full context (this will bring troubleXD)

[thousand sakuras]

as in the bible it put..."before God created the world there was chaos". its the same thing with the government and law. before it came into the world everything was chaotic. because no standards of living were set. with these, terrans (humans) tend to be more humane.

[Elocin]

I believe that alot of people would pillage, rape, steal, kill, and all that fun stuff. When you look at it, right now we are in a society where we are bound by rules. And when those rules get too overbearing, we are more compelled to rebel. So without all those rules tieing people down, they are more compelled to behave in bad ways. However, since each human is different, there will be those who will be good and follow the 'rules' perse.

I also believe that we will die out because we depend on an organized structure too much to make do on our own. I mean, who's going to form a little family, farm every day, kill livestock, and essentially live in that lifestyle, along with fix a car and build a house. We're too used to a government to be able to do it ourself. Also, Americans are lazy. So they won't want to do it themselves. :P

[hobbes24]

im sure time and time again thomas hobbes' theory has proven itself true
as long as we live in this universe we are bound by this universe's rules
that sounds kinda cinical, but we are human
maybe we would learn after a while
prolly not since we live for such a short time and there would always be new humans who have to learn their own lessons as well.. depressing
i guess if u think for a while about (any hypothetical group of people living together) they would all react to what happens to them and those reactions would just cause more reactions by the other people
and if this group is held together by "morals" i guess there will always be a person who wants to (not any specific person) do things his/her "own way".. i'm not bashing rebels personally or at all, maybe its just something involved in groups of people where each person is exposed to different things and each person reacts accordingly (maybe there is a pattern).. also im not saying that it is ok to ditch morals because u can't control a pattern of causes/effects.. dang...This is so complicated i don't know how nebody understands it!! i think what im trying to say is... even though there is a lot of thing we can't change, there are also a lot of things we can, and bad things happen, which shouldn't be praised, and probably punished. whether it is the person's "fault" or not, the action shouldn't be left alone- and maybe its just a huge pattern of cause/effect action/reaction and there prolly wouldn't be the "good" people without the "bad" people
so i guess my vote goes to thomas hobbes
my name is after the tiger btw, even tho he was named after thomas hobbes, just because he's the most awesome stuffed tiger in my favorite comic
yes i know thats grammatically incorrect for those who would notice
just wondering: in which book/verse is that found thousand sakuras? plz don't take as an attack, i was just wondering, and its cool of u dont know
twould save me a lot of time :)

[Guy]

Lol, Thomas Hobbes ftw. Heck, his theory is correct even when we HAVE government, law, and order. Without those, absolute chaos will erupt.

[shadow_of_89]

1.In a state were society and morals don't exist everything will tend to the creation of one......
2.the strongest survives
3.the weak survive by backstabbing the strongest

[bbnflpn]

it would probably be split down the middle.

i belive that people are inharently good, but they will do what they need to do to survive. people will act like vigilantes in order to right wrongs done to people.

in a few years we will probably be going throught his, the end of the world as we know it. alot of things are gonna change. governement, religon, humanity as a whole. its gonna be tough, people are gonna die, but we will get through it.

[Rihaku]

First off, Hobbes never witnessed anything approaching the true state of nature - he was raised in Civil War England, and his childhood years were basically brutally defined. Locke never did either - he was a bit more sheltered, which is why he developed his opinions. Also, Locke didn't believe people were in nature "good." He believed that they were tabula rasha, or blank slate - they became what they were taught to become.

If humans were reduced to a "state of nature" - that is, without societal bonds or anything resembling organization, we would die out. People suck at going it alone.