AustLit

Editor's note: This digital portfolio was completed by Chloe Davies for PHIL2013 and published by Cirrus as an example of superlative student work.

Return to Best of Cirrus Special Collection: PHIL2013

Throughout history, there have been a variety of different theories concerning human nature, typically categorising us somewhere on a spectrum between highly communal and definitively individualistic. Of the philosophers examined in this portfolio, Descartes most closely aligns with the former, while Hobbes most closely aligns with the latter. Spinoza incorporates elements of both and thus falls somewhere closer to the middle of the spectrum. 

This portfolio aims to explore how each of these three philosophers applies their conception of human nature to their explanation of the birth and persistence of the State and civil society, ultimately arguing for the conclusion that the theories put forward by Spinoza most closely align with how we understand human nature and the function of the State in contemporary times.