> Hobbes
>
> During the time men live without a common power to keep them all in
> awe, they are in that condition which is called war; and such a war as
> is of every man against every man. In this state any person has a
> natural right to do anything to preserve his own liberty or safety,
> and life is "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short." ...in the
> international arena, states behave as individuals do in a state of
> nature.
>
> Within the state of nature there is no injustice, since there is no
> law, excepting certain natural precepts, the first of which is "that
> every man ought to endeavour peace, as far as he has hope of obtaining
> it". ; and the second is "that a man be willing, when others are so
> too, as far forth as for peace and defence of himself he shall think
> it necessary, to lay down this right to all things; and be contented
> with so much liberty against other men as he would allow other men
> against himself". . From this, ...the way out of the state of nature
> [is] into civil government by mutual contract. (bellum omnium contra
> omnes)
>
> Locke
>
> The state of Nature has a law of Nature to govern it, and that law is
> Reason. ...reason teaches that no one ought to harm another in his
> life, health, liberty or possessions; and that transgressions of this
> may be punished. This view of the state of nature is partly deduced
> from Christian belief (unlike Hobbes, whose philosophy is not
> dependent upon any prior theology): the reason we may not harm another
> is that we are all the possessions of God and do not own ourselves.
>
> Rousseau
>
> ...Hobbes was taking socialized persons and simply imagining them
> living outside of the society in which they were raised. [Rousseau]
> affirmed instead that people were naturally good. Men knew neither
> vice nor virtue since they had almost no dealings with each other.
> Their bad habits are the products of civilization. Nevertheless the
> conditions of nature forced people to enter a state of society by
> establishing a civil society.
>
> John Rawls
>
> [We must use] ...an artificial state of nature. [One that] places
> everyone in the original position. The original position is a
> hypothetical state of nature used as a thought experiment: People in
> the original position have no society and are under a veil of
> ignorance that prevents them from knowing how they may benefit from
> society. They do not know if they will be smart or dumb, rich or poor,
> or anything else about their fortunes and abilities. ...people in the
> original position would want a society where they had their basic
> liberties protected and where they had some economic guarantees as
> well. If society were to be constructed from scratch through a social
> agreement between individuals, these principles would be the expected
> basis of such an agreement. Thus, these principles should form the
> basis of real, modern societies since everyone should consent to them
> if society were organized from scratch in fair agreements.
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_of_nature