Abstract
Abstract This paper connects Hobbes the political philosopher with Kierkegaard the existentialist philosopher through the prism of the state of nature. It compares Kierkegaard's account of the emergence of ethical norms from the aesthetic stage of life with Hobbes's account of the emergence of legal norms from the state of nature. The paper argues that the transition from the state of nature to the state of civil society involves, not only a change of state, but also a transformation of self. This view of the relationship between the self and the state sees the Hobbesian state through the lens of the Kierkegaardian self. An internal change takes place within the self when we move from the state of nature to the state.
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