Similarities Between Hobbes And The Joker

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"Bellum omnium contra omnes”. “The war of all against all”. That is the description Thomas Hobbes gives to human existence in the Leviathan. From what I’ve learned about Thomas Hobbes, I can see how the Joker is nearly a direct comparison. Thomas Hobbes believed that all humans were born evil, and that in the state of nature, people are always at war with one another. In the film, The Dark Knight, the Joker seems to be all about people needing just one push to become undeniably evil. Both Hobbes and the Joker believe that people are unethical and selfish, and that is what the Joker based his ferry boat experiment on. Like Hobbes, the Joker constantly points out that people are naturally evil, and being good requires work. This resembles Hobbes view of the state of human nature theory. Talking about Harvey Dent the Joker says “I took Gotham’s white knight, and brought him down to our level. It wasn’t hard. Y’see, madness, as you know, is like gravity. All it takes is a little…push.” This statement from the Joker is similar to Hobbes beliefs because that is the main thing people know about Hobbes, he believed humans are born evil. Thomas Hobbes believed that without some terrible power to make us observe the laws we will act on our own impulses. For this reason, in 1651 he wrote his most famous work that I previously mentioned, Leviathan. Hobbes …show more content…

When the Joker talks to Harvey Dent, it shows that the potential to be evil lays inside everyone - even the best of us. Harvey Dent becomes obsessed with chance and chaos, just as Hobbes and the Joker were. I feel like this scene was showing that we are all born evil, and no matter how good we seem, it just takes “one little push” to bring it out. Again, this relates directly back to Hobbes theory of the state of human

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