The title of this weeks newsletter is perhaps one of the most well-known and most cited quotes in all of the English language, and is attributable to Thomas Hobbes and his views on what is known as the state of nature. The state of nature is a hypothetical scenario wherein there are no nations, laws, institutions, governments, states, big businesses, or, in essence, no political society. A certain strain of political philosophers adopt this argument to make two points about human nature and political society. The first is that depending how humans are conceptualized by the philosopher in the state of nature will say something more fundamental about human nature. Are humans more prone to do whatever it takes to maximize their own self-preservation, or are they more prone to set aside their differences and work together? Your perspective on this, and your understanding of how humans behave in their 'natural condition,' will ultimately inform how we need to organize political society.