<P> According to Hobbes the state of nature exists at all times among independent countries, over whom there is no law except for those same precepts or laws of nature (Leviathan, Chapters XIII, XXX end). His view of the state of nature helped to serve as a basis for theories of international law and realism . </P> <P> John Locke considers the state of nature in his Second Treatise on Civil Government written around the time of the Exclusion Crisis in England during the 1680s . For Locke, in the state of nature all men are free "to order their actions, and dispose of their possessions and persons, as they think fit, within the bounds of the law of nature ." (2nd Tr., § 4). "The state of Nature has a law of Nature to govern it", and that law is reason . Locke believes that reason teaches that "no one ought to harm another in his life, liberty, and or property" (2nd Tr., § 6); and that transgressions of this may be punished . This view of the state of nature is partly deduced from Christian belief (unlike Hobbes, whose philosophy is not dependent upon any prior theology). </P> <P> Although it may be natural to assume that Locke was responding to Hobbes, Locke never refers to Hobbes by name, and may instead have been responding to other writers of the day, like Robert Filmer . In fact, Locke's First Treatise is entirely a response to Filmer's Patriarcha, and takes a step by step method to refuting Filmer's theory set out in Patriarcha . The conservative party at the time had rallied behind Filmer's Patriarcha, whereas the Whigs, scared of another prosecution of Anglicans and Protestants, rallied behind the theory set out by Locke in his Two Treatises of Government as it gave a clear theory as to why the people would be justified in overthrowing a monarchy which abuses the trust they had placed in it . </P> <P> Montesquieu makes use of the concept of the state of nature in his The Spirit of the Laws, first printed in 1748 . Montesquieu interestingly states the thought process behind early human beings before the formation of society . He says that human beings would have the faculty of knowing and would first think to preserve their life in the state . Human beings would also at first feel themselves to be impotent and weak . As a result, humans would not be likely to attack each other in this state . Next, humans would seek nourishment and out of fear and impulse would eventually unite to create society . Once society was created, a state of war would ensue amongst societies which would have been all created the same way . The purpose of war is the preservation of the society and the self . The formation of law within society is the reflection and application of reason for Montesquieu . </P>

Without government who rules in the state of nature