 So here I am in the state of nature, just me out here, there's no other people, there's some deer, but it's just me and the deer out here. And this is basically what Hobbes means by state of nature. Now we shouldn't think state as a state of being or something like that, but more like political state. And the idea of the state of nature is not so much that I'm in a political state with trees, but that this is kind of the political state with nobody. I've reached no agreements with anybody else. I haven't entered into a society or anything like that. Out here, it's just me. Now in the state of nature, since there is no political state, there's only one good thing. And the one good thing is preserving my own life. That's the good, preserving my life. And kind of, consequently, there's only one bad thing. And that's either the threat of death or death itself. These are, that's the bad thing that's out here. So the good is preserving my own life and the bad is the threat to it. Now consequently, since there's only one good thing, I have only one obligation. My obligation is to preserve my own life, to do what's reasonable to preserve my own life. Now reasonable here is something more like effective. It would be unreasonable for me to try to preserve my life by eating trees. Rather, I should go after those deer. That's what's reasonable. That's what is my right. My right in the state of nature is I have the right to everything. If it's good for me to preserve, if it's useful for me to preserve my own life, I have a right to it. I have a right to it because I have one obligation to preserve my own life. I'm forbidden from doing only one thing. I am forbidden from endangering my life or ending it. So that's the only thing that I'm forbidden to do is to either endanger my life or to end it. So out here in the state of nature, by myself, I'm not relying upon other people, I'm not having entered into any agreements, anything like that. This is kind of the political state, again, of nature, of what's just going to be involved with human nature. To preserve my life, my obligations to preserve my life, I'm forbidden from ending it or threatening it and I have the right to everything. So in the state of nature, not only is it the case that I have one obligation and I'm forbidden to do only one thing, that means I'm obligated to preserve my own life and I'm forbidden from endangering or ending my own. Well that means I have no obligations to anybody else. I don't have the obligation to save anybody else's life, only my own. I'm not forbidden from taking anybody else's life, just my own. Well this race is an interesting wrinkle because inevitably we're going to run into other people. There are other people in the world. Now here's the thing about people, there are some differences to be sure, but we're roughly equal in terms of our capacities, in terms of strength and intelligence, in terms of personality. Yeah, you take any two people next to each other, then there's going to be a difference such that one may be able to dominate the other. Yeah that's always going to happen, sure. But the equality here means that there's no one person who is stronger than everybody else. One person may be stronger than another, but there's no one person who's stronger than everybody else. Even if this strong person, take this hypothetical strong person who is walking around, they might be able to either fight off or kill off some individual people, but before too long the rest of everybody else will gang up on them and end their reign of terror, so to speak. So in this state of nature we are all roughly equal. There's no one person that can just by force of will alone and by capability can dominate everybody else. That means that there's going to be any kind of cohesion or any kind of organization or social order, it can only be through agreement, through the exercise of free will, not the abolishment of it. So here I am in the state of nature and I'm roughly equal to everybody else and they're after the same thing I am. I have a right to everything, well so do they. They have a right to everything too, well if they have a right to everything and they're after the same thing I am, can I trust that person? Do you see anybody? Have to be careful, you know. I have the right to everything, but so does everybody else. And I haven't made any agreements with anybody else. So if, you know I'm looking for a spring of water right now because I'm really thirsty and if I find a spring of water somebody else is there, it's going to be a free for all. Remember I only have one obligation, that's to preserve my own life. I don't have to preserve anybody else's, they don't have to preserve mine. I'm only forbidden from taking my life, I'm not forbidden from taking anybody else's life. You know neither are they, they're not forbidden from taking my life. I don't have any agreements with anybody so I can't trust them. And if, what was that? And if we should come across each other and we both have the right to everything, good things are not going to happen, likely there'll be violence, probably death. That's just what happens in the state of nature. If you don't have any agreements with anybody else, you have a lack of trust, you have no agreements. You can do pretty much anything you want. Well I got away from that whoever that was last time, but next time I may not be so lucky. You know this whole right to everything business is, well it's a little dangerous isn't it? Because with the right to everything, then it sure looks like we're going to wind up killing each other at some point. I'm obligated to protect my own life here. I'm supposed to protect my own life, but this right to everything business looks like it's threatening it. If I just look out for myself and that's what everybody else can do, well not good news. So well let me think here, I'm obligated to protect my own life and this right to everything is threatening it. Well maybe I ought to start laying down some of my rights to everything. Maybe I ought to find that other guy that's out there and cut a deal with him. Maybe we can work together or better yet maybe we agree just not to kill each other. Maybe we agree to settle some of our disputes peacefully through reason and through trade maybe. So yeah this is what Hobbes has in mind. That my right to everything threatens my own existence. So I better lay down some of those rights. I better cut a deal with whoever else is out there and then maybe we cut a deal with the third and maybe we find another group and we cut a deal with them. Or we agree to lay down our rights to everything and we give up some of our rights to say kill each other. We give up our rights to take just anything. We have something like property rights, how we acquire property. We have some agreements as to what makes a fair trade, a fair deal. Well I'm kind of eager to start laying down some of my rights because this getting scared in the woods stuff is not fun. I think maybe I'm going to go find that guy and cut a deal. Yeah, it's time for me to leave the state of nature. It's time for me to enter into a political state, a social state with other people.