Thomas Vs Hobbes

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Thomas Hobbes’s dilemma of the state of nature is that of a society of no government, no police, no courts, no laws, and no central authority. if humans were left to themselves without government, Hobbes claims, then life would be horrible, nasty and brutish. Hobbes implies that human beings are essentially selfish and without government human beings would hurt and kill each other without hesitation. According to Hobbes, people agree to be moral and not to hurt others only if they negotiate with the other person not to harm them in return, which he views as being purely selfish. Human beings adopt moral values simply because of selfish motives. Hobbes does not believe that humans do the right thing just because it is the right thing to do, …show more content…
St Thomas also believes that achieving happiness, however, requires a range of intellectual and moral virtues that allows us to understand the nature of happiness and motivate us to seek it in a reliable and consistent way. St Thomas believes that we cannot, however, achieve complete happiness in this life. For him, final happiness requires supernatural union with God and such an end lies far beyond what we through our natural human capacities can attain. St. Thomas thinks that we inherited the ability to sin from our first parents, Adam and Eve and because of that our nature is diminished by sin’s stain. So we need God’s help in order to restore the good of our nature and bring us into conformity with his …show more content…
Therefore, Hobbes argued that we are selfish and care only for our own survival even if it comes at the cost of others. This results in conflict, and eventually leads into a state of conflict and the motivation for all actions is benefit for oneself. Even unselfish actions could be explained in this manner because, according to Hobbes’ theory, our primary desire is self-preservation and in other’s misfortune one’s own plight is foreseen, therefore providing motivation to act in this seemingly unselfish manner. However, Hobbes views materialistic longing as the drive for all actions while reason provides the best possible way to fulfill these desires. Overall, Hobbes has a rather negative view about human nature, in that without an absolute sovereign to control our desires we will live in a constant state of