Everything about Bellum Omnium Contra Omnes totally explained
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
De Cive (1642) and
Leviathan (1651).
In
Leviathan itself (Chapter 13), Hobbes speaks of 'a war [...] of every man against every man', but the Latin phrase occurs in
De Cive:
Praefatio (preface), section 14: "Ostendo primo conditionem hominum extra societatem civilem (quam conditionem appellare liceat statum naturae) aliam non esse quam bellum omnium contra omnes; atque in eo bello jus esse omnibus in omnia."
(I show in the first place that the state of men without civil society (which state may be called the state of nature) is nothing but a war of all against all; and that in that war, all have a right to all things.)
Later on, a slightly modified version is presented:
Libertas (liberty), Chapter 1, section 12: "[...] Status hominum naturalis antequam in societatem coiretur Bellum fuerit; neque hoc simpliciter, sed bellum omnium in omnes."
(The natural state of men, before they were joined in society, was a war, and not simply, but a war of all against all.)
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.
Hobbes distinguishes between war (‘warre’) and battle: war doesn't only consist of actual battle; it points to the situation in which one knows there's a ‘will to contend by battle’ (
Leviathan, Chapter 13).
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.
It was also used by
Friedrich Nietzsche in
On Truth and Lie in an Extra Moral Sense:
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