Bellum omnium contra omnes
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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).
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 does not only consist in actual battle; it points to the situation in which one knows there is 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 Nietzsche in 'On Truth and Lie in an Extra Moral Sense';
"Insofar as the individual wants to preserve himself against other individuals, in a natural state of affairs he employs the intellect mostly for simulation alone. But because man, out of need and boredom, wants to exist socially, herd-fashion, he requires a peace pact and he endeavors to banish at least the very crudest bellum omni contra omnes from his world. "
Was used as the title of an Anaal Nathrakh song.
