What is human nature is a very tough question to answer, because of laws, governments and

society we don’t act as our own nature wants us to act. Hobbes argues that our nature is actually
inherently violent and sel sh but is this true?

One example of this is that if we imagine a bus with few spaces and with a long queue most
people will push no matter what to enter the bus just looking for their personal interest, or at least
this is what Hobbes would say. However, in reality it is true that some people will push but many
people will wait for their turn while the people inside the bus would try to make some space for
people to enter.

Another example is that if a pregnant lady enters a train and all seats are full nobody will stand up
as it is not in their self-interest so they wouldn’t according to Hobbes. But actually at least one
person will stand up letting the lady sit down even though it is not in their self-interest.

Interestingly, what we can observe is that even though there isn’t a law for letting pregnant women
sit rst or respecting a queue in the bus some people will do it naturally. Which challenges
Hobbes idea of human nature. But is this because of our actual nature or because of society
expectations?

I believe that this is actually part of nature and that Hobbes is partially wrong with his theory. As
humans, we have the ability to emphasise with other human beings, and understand their pains. I
believe that it’s all about how critical the situations is. For example in a situation of life or death we
are merciless human beings, sel sh and violent as we try to ensure our survival but in normal
situations in which a small e ort can really help someone else, we are inclined to help the other
person because of empathy. In the scenarios mentioned above the people which would act
sel shly is most likely just that they are going internally through a bad time, altering the perception
of how important a situation is making their subconscious interpret the situation much more
intense/painful that it actually is.

In conclusion, I believe human nature is a scale of priorities, the rst and most important priority is
our own survival and we would do anything to ensure it as Hobbes said. But in a situations where
our perception of it is not life-threatening, we are able to emphasise with others and do small
e orts for a greater good. Thus Hobbes was right in situations of life or death or of high stress but
wrong by generalising this sel shness and violence to all situations in which humans act naturally
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