KnowraState of natureLinked fromLinked fromThe 13 pages that link to State of nature, each with the reason it gives.All 13Related 8Narrower topic 3Compared with 2Social contractRelated: Social-contract theories use this imagined condition to explain why people would accept political rule.Civil libertiesRelated: Social-contract theories use it to explain why people authorize government while retaining rights.Jean-Jacques RousseauRelated: Rousseau uses this thought experiment to distinguish natural human capacities from social corruption.Thomas HobbesRelated: Hobbes uses it to show why insecurity makes people seek a common power.Bayesian decision theoryRelated: Uncertainty about these states gives probabilities a role in choosing actions.Noble savageNarrower topic: The trope depends on imagining what people would be like before social institutions.Individual libertyNarrower topic: It exposes the tension between freedom from government and security through shared authority.LeviathanRelated: Hobbes uses this condition to show why people seek a power capable of keeping peace.Robert NozickNarrower topic: Nozick begins with private protection in a state of nature rather than assuming a state already exists.Two Treatises of GovernmentRelated: Locke uses it to explain natural freedom, equality, and the limits of individual power.Adam FergusonCompared with: Ferguson rejected the idea that humans could be understood apart from their social relations.Stateless societyCompared with: Ethnographic stateless societies are actual social orders, not philosophical thought experiments.Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fictionRelated: Survivors’ struggles raise questions about whether order can persist without the state.