A History of Pali Literature v1.c2.3
A History of Pāli Literature v1.c2.3
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v1.c2.3
The problem of the "state of nature" is the central problem of the political philosophy of the Enlightenment. It is not a historical problem, but a logical one. It is not a question of what man *was* in the beginning, but of what he *is* in his essence. The state of nature is the state of man stripped of all the artificial additions of society, of all the conventions of law and custom. It is the state of man as he is in himself, in his original purity or his original corruption.