Why is living in the state of nature dangerous

Locke claims a fundamental law of nature as the basis of his natural law theory. This fundamental law of nature provides a basic for a human living condition in a way that it states that no one can be denied the right to sustain himself on earth.

Every other law of nature is a derivation of the fundamental law of nature. The normative aspect goes hand in hand with universality. Both Hobbes and Locke agree on the fact that there is a need to execute the natural laws and Locke does this by granting the natural right to every individual.

It is therefore the duty for every man to practice the execution of the law of nature:. Natural rights can be considered rights of self-ownership. They protect my individual life. If I interfere in the natural rights of another person, I act against the law of nature and therefore against my own reasonability and the will of God. Locke knows that political authority as it exists entails a moral inequality that is due to the authority which is exercised by the governing political institution.

The state of nature is a free entity in which no positive law exists; it is free from any form of government. It is to everyone to protect his or her property and to secure the personal preservation.

In the state of nature every individual is seen as equal to every other individual. This second-order natural right also does not guarantee an objective sentence for the perpetrator. Since there is no convention about the degree of punishment that is deployed on the culprit, an arbitrary judgment by the individual might be inadequate; however, there would not even be a possibility to define inadequacy because of the lack of an objective judicial institution. Every right that a government has must have been existent in the state of nature since a government only acquires its legitimation and power from the base, which is the people.

The arbitrary judgments in the state of nature, as well as the scarcity of resources and therefore competition on these resources which represent power, inevitably lead to a state of war of everyone against everyone.

According to Locke natural rights of the first order cannot be alienated from an individual, whereas natural rights of the second order can be transferred to an institution which then has the obligation to execute these rights:. To which it is obvious to answer, that though in the state of nature he hath such a right, yet the enjoyment of it is very uncertain, and constantly exposed to the invasion of others: for all being kings as much as he, every man his equal, and the greater part no strict observers of equity and justice, the enjoyment of the property he has in this state is very unsafe, very unsecure.

This makes him willing to quit a condition, which, however free, is full of fears and continual dangers: and it is not without reason, that he seeks out, and is willing to join in society with others, who are already united, or have a mind to unite, for the mutual preservation of their lives, liberties and estates, which I call by the general name, property.

Lowe, p. But most of us can co-operate very well on our own, thank you very much. Rather he presents our situation as far more tragic than this.

In the state of nature many of us will have fellow feeling for others. We do want to respect others and their property.

But because we cannot trust everyone, and do not know whom to trust and whom not to trust, we must, if rational, trust no-one.

Any other course of action will be far too risky. Our fear of death requires us even to attack other people. Consequently we need a sovereign not so much to threaten us with punishment if we do wrong but to create safe conditions where we can trust each other and safely act as morality requires.

Once the sovereign is in place to enforce rules of conduct, acting morally is no longer such a risk. Conditions have been created which allow us to do the right thing without exposing ourselves to exploitation by others.

John Locke , for example, worried that an absolute sovereign, with absolute power, would be even more of a danger to us than life in the state of nature. We have a right to rebel if the sovereign abuses our trust.

If we were all completely trustworthy in all our dealings with each other, then perhaps we would not need a government, and could remain forever in the state of nature. But this is asking too much of each other. The authority of the government introduces a framework in which we can deal with this.

There is, of course, plenty of room in which we can develop mutual relationships based on trust and understanding in our day-to-day lives. But the full force of the law is there, lurking in the wings, just in case our trust is misplaced or wears too thin. Short extracts from these works are reprinted in Michael Rosen and Jonathan Wolff, ed.

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Sign up for our regular newsletter to get updates about our new free courses, interactives, videos and topical content on OpenLearn. Newsletter sign-up. Their natural state is a state of war, in which they distrust one another and try to increase their power so that they can attain superiority over others.

Nonetheless, men will eventually overcome these flaws because they are so self-concerned that they will do anything to survive, even if it means cooperating with the people around them. Hobbesian human nature is good to the extent that when one wants something he will hold on to his wish and do all he can to satisfy it. Hence, if a man wants to survive he will voluntarily respect the laws, give up his rights, and obey any higher authority that can protect him. It must be very hard for a man to decide to leave his state of nature, but his natural fear of death overrides any passions that would compel him to stay.

Baumgold, D. Barry, B. Gough, J. Hampton, J. Pettit, P. Before you download your free e-book, please consider donating to support open access publishing. E-IR is an independent non-profit publisher run by an all volunteer team. Your donations allow us to invest in new open access titles and pay our bandwidth bills to ensure we keep our existing titles free to view. Any amount, in any currency, is appreciated.

Many thanks! Donations are voluntary and not required to download the e-book - your link to download is below. Morgane Griveaud. This content was originally written for an undergraduate or Master's program.

It is published as part of our mission to showcase peer-leading papers written by students during their studies. Bibliography: Baumgold, D. Hobbes, T. Tuck, R.