In Plato’s Laws, the Athenian asks Cleinias (who represents Crete) why their law ordains that they should have “common meals and gymnastic exercises, and wear arms.” Cleinias says that “all these regulations have been made with a view to war.” The legislator (must have) believed that “all men are always at war with one another.” And “for what men in general term peace would be said by him to be only a name; in reality every city is in a natural state of war with every other, not indeed proclaimed by heralds, but everlasting.”
This answer reminds me of Thomas Hobbes, who, in Leviathan, writes:
There Is Alwayes Warre Of Every One Against Every One Hereby it is manifest, that during the time men live without a common Power to keep them all in awe, they are in that condition which is called Warre; and such a warre, as is of every man, against every man. For WARRE, consisteth not in Battell onely, or the act of fighting; but in a tract of time, wherein the Will to contend by Battell is sufficiently known: and therefore the notion of Time, is to be considered in the nature of Warre; as it is in the nature of Weather. For as the nature of Foule weather, lyeth not in a showre or two of rain; but in an inclination thereto of many dayes together: So the nature of War, consisteth not in actuall fighting; but in the known disposition thereto, during all the time there is no assurance to the contrary. All other time is PEACE.
Hobbes and Plato’s character Cleinias seem to agree that war exists naturally between people and that the state of war is the natural state even when there’s no fighting going on. It looks like the main thing they don’t align on is the definition of peace. For Cleinias, there isn’t real peace because the underlying condition is always war. So, peace is only a name. It is like a bedsheet covering a dirty mattress. For Hobbes, peace can exist when there’s a power that enforces it.
References:
Plato. Laws. Translated by Benjamin Jowett. Apple Books, 2008.
Hobbes, Thomas. Leviathan. Apple Books, 1679.
