Skip to main content

Why the State of Nature Fails

This video presents the same text shown beside it, spoken and on screen. It adds nothing the text does not say.

State

Four features doom the state of nature: equal vulnerability, scarce goods, limited concern for strangers, and no power to enforce a bargain.

Show

Two families claim one well. Neither can overpower the other for long, neither dares trust first, and no one referees. The well becomes a battlefield.