Abstract

The author in this paper shows the foundation of the idea of a natural law which explains natural state as state of war. Its origin can be traced back as far as sophistic philosophy. Aristotle’s understanding of nature (physis) implies finale cause and shows insufficiency of these theories. Modern philosophy has followed the ideas of Renaissance. While Renaissance is somewhere between mystical and natural understanding of world, modern philosophy is trying to find some safe ground for legitimation of knowledge and political thought. That “safe” new ground for modern philosophy is embedded in idea of nature. Mechanistic method had big influence on modern authors such as Spinoza, Hobbes and Kant. Through that method, they understand human nature as state of war which is the cause of unsociable sociability. This means that individuals live in society which is antagonistic and that they can’t exceed this state. That is why these theories are denoted as pessimistic. However, this paper shows that because of mechanistic method due to the lack of a purposeful cause in natural determinations makes it impossible to determine these theories unambiguously.

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