Scholastic roots of the Hobbesian state of nature

Abstract

This article investigates the origin of the notion of "state of nature" by analysing the term coined by Hobbes. After a brief discussion of the status quaestionis, which clarifies its relationship with the various "status" of human nature according to the scholastic theology of the time (1), I analyse the use of the concepts of "pure nature" and "the natural condition of man" (and their equivalent forms) in Hobbes' work (2). From this analysis, I argue that the Hobbesian notion arises from an alteration of Thomas Aquinas' consideration of man "in puris naturalibus" by post-Trent scholastic theology (3), which understands it as a new "status" of human nature, constructed in an abstractive way and with an hypothetical function, identical in its content with the theological "status" of fallen nature and with the historical "status" of natural law.