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24. Political Theory / A. Basis of a State / 1. A People / b. The natural life

[quality of human life in a state of nature]

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