Bellum omnium contra omnes, a Latin phrase meaning "the war of all against all", is the description that Thomas Hobbes gives to human existence in the state of nature thought experiment that he conducts in Leviathan (1651). Latin was the language originally spoken in the region around Rome called Latium. ... Hobbes redirects here. ... State of nature is a term in political philosophy used in social contract theories to describe the hypothetical condition of humanity before the states foundation and its monopoly on the legitimate use of physical force. ... In philosophy, physics, and other fields, a thought experiment (from the German Gedankenexperiment) is an attempt to solve a problem using the power of human imagination. ... Frontispiece of Leviathan Leviathan was a book written in 1651 by Thomas Hobbes, is one of the most famous and influential books of political philosophy. ...

The thought experiment places people in a pre-social condition, and theorizes what would happen in such a condition. According to Hobbes, the outcome is that people choose to enter a social contract, giving up some of their liberties in order to enjoy peace. This thought experiment is a test for the legitimation of a state in fulfilling its role as "sovereign" to guarantee social order, and for comparing different types of states on that basis. Social contract theory (or contractarianism) is a concept used in philosophy, political science and sociology to denote an implicit agreement within a state regarding the rights and responsibilities of the state and its citizens, or more generally a similar concord between a group and its members, or between individuals. ... The word legitimacy comes from the Latin word legitimare and it has two uses: Legitimacy (political science) is whether or not people accept the validity of a law or ruling or the validity of a governing regime. ... A state is a set of institutions that possess the authority to make the rules that govern a society, having internal and external sovereignty over a definite territory. ... Sovereignty is the exclusive right to exercise supreme political (e. ...

This Latin phrase is used by Karl Marx in On the Jewish Question when he says "It has become the spirit of civil society, of the sphere of egoism, of the bellum omnium contra omnes." The irony here is that while Hobbes argued that the social contract was a way to escape "the war of all against all", Marx turns that around and claims that civil society is no different from Hobbes's state of nature. In particular, Marx says that religion no longer unites human beings but divides them. Karl Heinrich Marx (May 5, 1818, Trier, Germany – March 14, 1883, London) was an immensely influential German philosopher, political economist, and socialist revolutionary. ... On the Jewish Question (German: Zur Judenfrage) is an essay by Karl Marx written in autumn 1843 and first published in February 1844 in Deutsch-Französische Jahrbücher. ...

See also

• Social contract theories