state of nature
Noun: 1. A condition or period existing before the establishment of civilized society, law, or government; a primitive, uncultivated, or natural condition. This refers to the hypothetical or historical condition of humanity before social and political organization. 2. A wild, untamed, or uncivilized environment or state of being, untouched by human development. This can describe both a physical wilderness and a metaphorical condition of raw, ungoverned existence.
- Noun:
- Philosophers like Hobbes and Rousseau theorized about life in the state of nature.
- The remote island was a pristine state of nature, with no signs of human habitation.
- Without rules, the community feared descending into a brutal state of nature.
- "In a state of nature": This phrase is used to describe something existing in its original, wild, or uncultivated form.
- The land, in a state of nature, was covered in dense forest and marsh.
- The concept is central to social contract theory, where individuals leave the "state of nature" to form a governed society.
- State (n): A particular condition that someone or something is in at a specific time.
- Nature (n): The physical world and everything in it (such as plants, animals, mountains, oceans, stars, etc.) that is not made by people; the inherent or essential qualities of something.
- Wilderness
- Primitive state
- Natural condition
- Savagery (in philosophical contexts, often with a negative connotation)
- Law of the jungle: A situation where people compete aggressively and only the strongest survive, analogous to a harsh interpretation of the state of nature.
- The collapse of order led to a law of the jungle.
The term carries different philosophical connotations. For Thomas Hobbes, the state of nature was a "war of all against all" and life was "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short." For John Locke, it was a state of liberty but governed by natural law. For Jean-Jacques Rousseau, it was a peaceful, if simple, condition corrupted by civilization. The modern usage often refers simply to a wild, undeveloped physical environment.
- a wild primitive state untouched by civilization
- he lived in the wild
- they collected mushrooms in the wild