HUM 2395 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Thomas Hobbes, Gladiator, Father Figures
Document Summary
The only really good answer we have gotten to this question is that war occurs in the absence of sovereignty. Where there is sovereignty, then people can live in peace. Rousseau offers a different account: where there is the general will, people can live in peace. So from this point of view, the absence of the community leads to war. In any event, there is something unnatural about war. It is an aberration from the state of peace that should generally prevail between people. All of this, of course, is by way of prelude to freud. Freud begins his account by noting that in primitive societies and among animals, the strong rule through the use of violence. This brings about a response from the not-strong: to band together, form a community, which will be stronger than the strongest individual, and submit everyone equally to the law. The larger unity has to be held together by emotional ties between its members.
