“The condition of man . . . is a condition of war of everyone against everyone.” ― Thomas Hobbes
In order to understand the minds of men, one must examine the human at its base. This involves the stripping away of social constructs, essentially removing civilization from the human entirely. It is here, that Thomas Hobbes describes the human as brutish, almost bestial, in nature. Humans are creatures of lawlessness, psychologically controlled by fear, and only ever seek the fulfillment of their own self-interests.
Hobbes’ definition of self-interest was all-encompassing. That is to say, everything the human does is only ever to fulfill their desires. If the human is hungry, the self-interest is getting food to eat. There was an Anglican bishop, Joseph Butler, who argued that self-interest is actually two things. First there is the Ordinary Sense, in which the human is interested in having their own personal will fulfilled in the world. The second is what he calls the Virtuous Sense, that one can genuinely care for another human, and the fact that the care is genuinely theirs, doesn’t mean it is not genuinely in the best interest of another. The truth is that humans are incapable of possessing this Virtuous Sense that Butler describes. If a human desires to be genuinely kind and compassionate, it is in their own self-interest to be genuinely kind to others— thereby fulfilling their own self-will.
Unlike Nietzsche, who urged humanity “beyond good and evil”, Hobbes saw morality as a construct and thus, humans “prior to”. The moral categories that we use to define good and evil simply would not exist. The human is able to sate their self-interest by any means necessary, even to the point of killing another human over a conflict of desires. The bestial human, as Hobbes would say, is lawless. There are neither laws, nor the language, to define morality and until laws be made, actions cannot be judged morally in any form.
Humans are fairly equal to one another in terms of the ability to acquire their desire, whether it be a need or want. They all have equal hope of fulfilling their self-interest. These individual necessities and desires overlap on various objects, locations, and ends. Conflicts arise due to the scarcity of goods, especially ones for survival such as food, shelter, and water. Hobbes calls this the Bellum Omnium Contra Omnes: the War of All Against All. Prior to any constructs, such as society and authority, there is only chaos. In this landscape, fear emerges as the most powerful motive, emotion, and psychological force.
There is a spiraling paranoia within the human psyche because if I am able to kill another human, then they are able to kill me as well. This condition justifies the preemptive strike as there is always good reason to harm or manipulate another human— even if there is no good evidence. Not only perceived fear, but imagined and theoretical fear, holds tremendous impact on human thought and behavior.