Thomas Hobbes and the phenomena of civil war: A textual exposition of Hobbes’s commitment to the empirical and historical existence of the state of nature.

Abstract

Did Thomas Hobbes consider his conception of the state of nature to be based within any empirically verifiable reality?
The foundational predicates of this thesis can be reduced to two fundamental points:
1. That Hobbes’s belief in the existence in the state of nature was sincere.
2. The most pertinent empirical basis for the state of nature expressed by Hobbes was civil war, specifically, the English Civil War Period.
The analytical trajectory of the thesis will endeavour, whenever possible, to pursue channels of inquiry which correspond to the two key predicates adumbrated above.
The format has been styled as a “textual exposition” because the method endorsed will seek to expose Hobbes’s commitment to the existence of the state of nature from the words that he himself had written. Whether they be elements of his renowned philosophical system, or written material situated outside the terminus of his political science. Such as his correspondence, or lesser-known publications.
Secondary material written about Hobbes’s state of nature, and the judgments of such authors as created them will of course be consulted at various points. However, to the primary material, containing Hobbes’s own judgments on the state of nature and its relationship with civil war, is accorded the greater responsibility for validating the premises of this thesis.