How Does Hobbes View Of Human Nature

Pico della Mirandola was a humanist who wrote the Oration on the Dignity of Man, which commemorates human nature. In his book, Oration on the Dignity of Man, Pico argues that human beings are free to become whatever they choose. Pico believed that the source of human freedom is God. Humans were placed by God in the middle of the chain of being. They are “neither of heavenly nor of earthly stuff, neither mortal nor immortal,” and humans are free to choose the place they want to be on the chain of being. Above them are the angels and below them are the animals, and they can choose to go up the chain or down. The noblest goal of this freedom is to strive to go up the chain of being and “strive after the highest and expend all our strength in
Thomas Hobbes, a philosopher who wrote Leviathan, argues that human beings are selfish and therefore need a higher authority appointed to protect them from one another. The similarities between Hobbes’ views of human nature and those of Luther are that they both believe that human beings need an authority figure to stop them from doing evil. Hobbes states in Leviathan that freedom means that human live in a society where “… they are in that condition which is called war; and such a war as is of every man against every man.” This illustrates that human beings are greedy and use violence to get what they want. This freedom makes them commit the acts of the devil. Luther agrees with this because in The Bondage of the Will, he states that “…in the face of so many dangers, and adversities, and assaults of devils, I could not stand my ground and hold fast to my free will.” He knows that if humans are able to do anything that they want they are more likely to commit sins because there is no higher authority guiding them. They also believe that this freedom will lead them to death. Hobbes states that in a free world there is the “…danger of violent death,” because people want to fulfill their desires. They constantly have to fear one another and therefore cannot live this beautiful life that is given to them. Luther is also in favor of this idea; he states that with freedom “…every one of us would perish” because we will more likely to commit the act of sins. Therefore, they both believe that there should be order. Luther believes that order should come from God whereas Hobbes believes that there should be a monarch with absolute