State of Nature and Political Society in Hobbes and Rousseau: Juxtaposing Contrasts with Analogies

The unfold of the history of political doctrines underlines the existence of two antithetic human conditions, namely the state of nature and political society. Political philosophers expressed different views about the features of the state of nature and the consequent birth of political society. In this frame, Hobbes and Rousseau contributed enormously to the development of the debate. Through the analysis of the two authors’ primary sources, I attempt to compare the conflicting visions of Hobbes and Rousseau around the state of nature and political society but also to highlight some noticeable, somewhat neglected similarities. I argue that, while Hobbes and Rousseau expressed clear contrasting views on the human conditions in the state of nature and on the need for consociating in political society, they also shared five main assumptions, that is a common contractualistic vision of the origin of the state, the possibility of living in the state of nature, the condition of human equality in the state of nature, the convergence of the will of the state and the will of the people, and the mutual skepticism towards representative democratic forms of government.