state of nature
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
There are those who think it’s about man in a state of nature, what we are capable of when society is made primal around us.
From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 9, 2026
Even as he appealed to the state of nature, though, Rousseau questioned whether it could ever be recovered.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 30, 2026
It is striking, then, to see that Shafik’s social contract doesn’t involve a state of nature at all and isn’t actually a deal that individuals reach with other individuals.
From Slate • May 9, 2024
And if there’s freedom, it is the false freedom of the state of nature, in which our weapons are always pointed and our eyes are fixed upon one another.
From Seattle Times • Nov. 3, 2023
He was always in debt, she knew: to such easy-going creatures as he always seemed to be, debt was a state of nature.
From My Lords of Strogue, Vol. II (of III) A Chronicle of Ireland, from the Convention to the Union by Wingfield, Lewis
