Thoams Hobbes and Overcoming the State of Nature

In The Leviathan, Thomas Hobbes is writing during a time of great political turmoil and upheaval, the English Civil War. He claims that in a state of nature, people are constantly warring against each other, and the only way to overcome this is to form a commonwealth; what Hobbes also calls an “artificial man”. He does this by going over the conditions that characterize a state of nature, certain rights that all people have by nature, and the method for transferring these rights, by way of a covenant, to a sovereign, whether it be one person, or a group of people in order to achieve a state of peace. While Hobbes makes a very relevant and clear argument, it does contain some shortcomings when examined closely. Hobbes addresses these issues and tries to convince the reader that his commonwealth is the only way a society will experience lasting peace.
Hobbes argues that when there is no government or civil authority, humans are living in a state of nature. This state is what Ho...