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Bellum omnium contra omnes, aLatin phrase meaning "the war of all against all", is the description thatThomas Hobbes gives tohuman existence in thestate-of-naturethought experiment that he conducts inDe Cive (1642) andLeviathan (1651). The common modern English usage is a war of "each against all" where war is rare and terms such as "competition" or "struggle" are more common.[3]
InLeviathan itself,[4]Hobbes speaks of 'warre of every one against every one',[5] of 'a war [...] of every man against every man'[6] and of 'a perpetuall warre of every man against his neighbour',[4][7] but the Latin phrase occurs inDe Cive:
[...]ostendo primo conditionem hominum extra societatem civilem, quam conditionem appellare liceat statum naturæ, aliam non esse quam bellum omnium contra omnes; atque in eo bello jus esse omnibus in omnia.[8](I demonstrate, in the first place, that the state of men without civil society (which state we may properly call the state of nature) is nothing else but a mere war of all against all; and in that war all men have equal right unto all things.)[9]
Later on, two slightly modified versions are presented inDe Cive:
[...]Status hominum naturalis antequam in societatem coiretur, bellum fuerit; neque hoc simpliciter, sed bellum omnium in omnes.[10](The natural state of men, before they entered into society, was a mere war, and that not simply, but a war of all men against all men.)[11]
Nam unusquisque naturali necessitate bonum sibi appetit, neque est quisquam qui bellum istud omnium contra omnes, quod tali statui naturaliter adhæret, sibi existimat esse bonum.[12](For every man by natural necessity desires that which is good for him: nor is there any that esteems a war of all against all, which necessarily adheres to such a state, to be good for him.)[13]
In chapter XIII ofLeviathan,[14] Hobbes explains the concept with these words:
Hereby it is manifest that 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.[15] [...] In such condition there is no place for Industry, because the fruit thereof is uncertain: and consequently no Culture of the Earth; no Navigation, nor use of the commodities that may be imported by Sea; no commodious Building; no Instruments of moving and removing such things as require much force; no Knowledge of the face of the Earth; no account of Time; no Arts; no Letters; no Society; and which is worst of all, continual Fear, and danger of violent death; And the life of man solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.[16]
The thought experiment places people in a pre-social condition, and theorizes what would happen in such a condition. According to Hobbes, the outcome is that people choose to enter asocial contract, giving up some of their liberties in order to enjoy peace. This thought experiment is a test for thelegitimation of astate in fulfilling its role as "sovereign" to guarantee social order, and for comparing different types of states on that basis.
Hobbes distinguishes between war and battle: war does not only consist of actual battle; it points to the situation in which one knows there is a 'Will to contend by Battle'.[17]
In hisNotes on the State of Virginia (1785),Thomas Jefferson uses the phrasebellum omnium in omnia ("war of all things against all things", assumingomnium is intended to be neuter likeomnia) as he laments that the constitution of that state was twice at risk of being sacrificed to the nomination of adictator after the manner of theRoman Republic.[18]
The phrase was sometimes used byKarl Marx andFriedrich Engels:
Religion has become the spirit ofcivil society, of the sphere of egoism, ofbellum omnium contra omnes.[19]
One could just as well deduce from this abstract phrase that each individual reciprocally blocks the assertion of the others' interests, so that, instead of a general affirmation this war of all against all produces a general negation.[20]
It is remarkable howDarwin rediscovers, among the beasts and plants, the society of England with its division of labour, competition, opening up of new markets, 'inventions' andMalthusian 'struggle for existence'. It is Hobbes'bellum omnium contra omnes.[22]
The whole Darwinists teaching of the struggle for existence is simply a transference from society to living nature of Hobbes's doctrine ofbellum omnium contra omnes and of the bourgeois-economic doctrine of competition together with Malthus's theory of population. When this conjurer's trick has been performed..., the same theories are transferred back again from organic nature into history and it is now claimed that their validity as eternal laws of human society has been proved.[23]
Insofar as the individual wants to preserve himself against other individuals, in a natural state of affairs he employs the intellect mostly for simulation alone. But because man, out of need and boredom, wants to exist socially, herd-fashion, he requires a peace pact and he endeavors to banish at least the very crudestbellum omnium contra omnes from his world.[24]
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