Bellum omnium contra omnes

The Præfatio (Preface) of De Cive where the phrase bellum omnium contra omnes appears for the first time.[1] Taken from the revised edition printed in 1647 at Amsterdam (apud L. Elzevirium).[2]

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). The common modern English usage is a war of "each against all" where war is rare and terms such as "competition" or "struggle" are more common.[3]

  1. ^ See on Google Books.
  2. ^ See on Google Books.
  3. ^ Charles Fourier (1915). Upton Sinclair (ed.). "Each Against All". Bartleby.com (1st ed.). Retrieved 21 April 2013.

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