"" (Leviathan) .
Given that the natural causes of conflict are unavoidable, Hobbes concludes that the natural condition of mankind (or the state of nature) is a state of continuous war of all against all, where everyone lives in constant fear.
From this proposition about human nature Hobbes develops the natural condition of mankind (state of nature) prior to the development of society, and the invention of civil law. Hobbes describes the state of nature, in which no common power exists, as one of continuous war and violence, and of fear and death. According to Hobbes, in such a condition, "it is manifest that during the time men live without a common power to keep them all in awe, they are in a condition which is called war; and such a war as is of every man against every man."" Such a condition is depicted by Hobbes as a "war of all against all,"" in which human beings relentlessly seek to destroy each other in an incessant pursuit of power. Hobbes' illustration of life in the state of nature:.
"In such a condition, there is no place for industry, because the fruit thereof is uncertain; and consequently no culture of the earth, no navigation, nor use of the commodities that may be imported by sea; no commodious building, no instruments of moving and removing such things as require much force; no knowledge of the face of the earth, no account of time, no arts, no letters, no society; and which is worst of all, continual fear and danger of violent death; and the life of people, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short."" (Leviathan) .
With the invention of the state of nature surfaces Leviathan, Hobbes' narrative, in which the main characters are natural men ("savages-) struggling for their self-preservation against the brutalities that exist in the state of nature, and the abuses of one another in a never-ending pursuit of power. Unlike Locke, Hobbes believed that the state of nature was indeed a state of license, where man could do anything that he deemed necessary for his own self-preservation.