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Single Idea 19961

[filed under theme 24. Political Theory / A. Basis of a State / 1. A People / b. The natural life ]

Full Idea

A being concerned only with preservation would be very timid. In such a state every man would feel himself an inferior; he could scarcely imagine himself an equal. No one would seek to attack anyone else; peace would be the first law of nature.

Gist of Idea

Primitive people would be too vulnerable and timid to attack anyone, so peace would reign

Source

Baron de Montesquieu (The Spirit of the Laws (rev. 1757) [1748], 01.02)

Book Ref

Montesquieu,Baron de: 'Selected Political Writings', ed/tr. Richter,Melvin [Hackett 1990], p.112

A Reaction

Exactly the idea that Rousseau took up, and they both attack Hobbes for describing a more advanced stage of society, instead of focusing on the original state. A solitary individual would be crazy to launch attacks on other individuals.

Related Idea

Idea 19962 Men do not desire to subjugate one another; domination is a complex and advanced idea [Montesquieu]

The 24 ideas with the same theme [quality of human life in a state of nature]:

19889 People need society because the individual has too many needs [Plato]
5133 Man is by nature a social being [Aristotle]
20842 Rational animals begin uncorrupted, but externals and companions are bad influences [Chrysippus, by Diog. Laertius]
23346 A person is as naturally a part of a city as a foot is part of the body [Epictetus]
19764 Hobbes attributed to savages the passions which arise in a law-bound society [Hobbes, by Rousseau]
2367 In time of war the life of man is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short [Hobbes]
19882 We are not created for solitude, but are driven into society by our needs [Locke]
19906 All countries are in a mutual state of nature [Locke]
19962 Men do not desire to subjugate one another; domination is a complex and advanced idea [Montesquieu]
19961 Primitive people would be too vulnerable and timid to attack anyone, so peace would reign [Montesquieu]
19755 Most human ills are self-inflicted; the simple, solitary, regular natural life is good [Rousseau]
19762 Is language a pre-requisite for society, or might it emerge afterwards? [Rousseau]
19763 I doubt whether a savage person ever complains of life, or considers suicide [Rousseau]
19765 Savages avoid evil because they are calm, and never think of it (not because they know goodness) [Rousseau]
19771 Savage men quietly pursue desires, without the havoc of modern frenzied imagination [Rousseau]
19778 Leisure led to envy, inequality, vice and revenge, which we now see in savages [Rousseau]
19779 Primitive man was very gentle [Rousseau]
19751 Our two starting principles are concern for self-interest, and compassion for others [Rousseau]
19791 Natural mankind is too fragmented for states of peace, or of war and enmity [Rousseau]
21075 The state of nature always involves the threat of war [Kant]
23275 The state of nature is one of untamed brutality [Hegel]
22673 Wherever there is a small community, the association of the people is natural [Tocqueville]
23844 The most important human need is to have multiple roots [Weil]
20489 Human beings can never really flourish in a long-term state of nature [Wolff,J]