Hobbes prefigured the tragedy-of-the-commons logic two centuries early

Evidence

Secondly, the communal theory was founded on competition, not sharing. In the state of nature, everyone has an equal right to everything: “Nature hath given all to all.” But to Hobbes this did not mean that all people would share nature’s gifts communally. Instead, everyone would be competing for the same natural resources, “for although any man might say of every thing, this is mine, yet he could not enjoy it, by reason of his neighbor, who having equal right and equal power, would pretend the same thing to be his.” Because of competitive self-interest, the commons cannot be shared, but must be fought over. As in the “tragedy of the commons,” those who did not compete for resources would be secretly ridiculed by their peers: “For he that should be modest and tractable and perform all he promises, … should but make himself a prey to others, and procure his own certain ruin.” The commons, like a marketplace, was based on competition and self-interest, hence analogous to a battleground in need of law and order, not to a Garden of Eden. — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature, 816

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Hobbes’s state of nature reframed humans as atomized, appetitive competitors — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature: Women, Ecology,…, 812; The tragedy of the commons logic applies to voting, war, and charity — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 2521

Broader Connections

• The tragedy of the commons logic applies to voting, war, and charity #expands (0.78) — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 2521