Are humans cooperative or competitive in the state of nature? Philosophical and empirical angles.

If you were left in a forest with nothing but your wits, would your first instinct be to find a partner to share with, or a weapon to defend what is yours? While we like to imagine ourselves as naturally helpful, history and biology suggest a darker reality: cooperation is often just a sophisticated strategy used to win a much larger competition. ## The Hobbesian Reality The most famous critic of "natural cooperation" was the English philosopher **Thomas Hobbes**. In his 1651 masterpiece, [Leviathan](https://www.gutenberg.org/files/11030/11030-h/11030-h.htm), Hobbes argued that without a strong government to keep us in check, humans exist in a "state of nature" that is actually a "war of all against all." According to Hobbes, humans are driven by three things: competition for gain, diffidence (fear) for safety, and glory for reputation. Without the "awe" of a common power, we don't naturally get along; we naturally collide. > "In such condition, there is no place for industry; because the fruit thereof is uncertain... and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short." ## The Biological Bottom Line Modern evolutionary biology often reinforces this competitive view. In [The Selfish Gene](https://www.richarddawkins.net/2014/02/the-selfish-gene-30th-anniversary-edition-2/), biologist **Richard Dawkins** argues that the fundamental unit of evolution isn't the group or even the individual—it’s the gene. Genes that promote their own survival at the expense of others are the ones that get passed down. While we see "cooperation" in nature, it is usually **reciprocal altruism**—a "I’ll scratch your back if you scratch mine" arrangement. If the benefit to the individual disappears, the cooperation usually collapses. This suggests that "kindness" is often just a long-term calculation for personal survival. ## The Tragedy of the Commons A major blow to the idea of innate cooperation is a concept called the **Tragedy of the Commons**, popularized by ecologist [Garrett Hardin](https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.162.3859.1243). Imagine a shared pasture. Every herder knows that if they add one more cow, they get more profit, but the grass will eventually disappear for everyone. If humans were naturally cooperative, they would limit their herds. Instead, historical and environmental data show that individuals almost always prioritize their own immediate gain, leading to the destruction of shared resources. ## Conflict as the Engine of Progress Thinkers like **Sigmund Freud** argued that humans possess an innate "aggressive drive." In his work [Civilization and Its Discontents](https://www.britannica.com/topic/Civilization-and-Its-Discontents), Freud suggested that society’s main job is to repress our natural urge to dominate others. If we were purely cooperative, we might still be living in stagnant tribal units. Competition—whether for status, resources, or innovation—is what forces us to improve. We didn't build civilizations because we loved our neighbors; we built them to protect ourselves from our neighbors and to ensure our own group's dominance over others.