Thomas Hobbes believed that human nature is inherently selfish and driven by a desire for power. He argued that before civilization, this selfishness led to anarchy, where each person sought power for themselves, creating an all-out war. According to Hobbes, humans are needy, vulnerable, and easily led astray in their attempts to know the world around them. He saw human beings as essentially machines, with even their thoughts and emotions operating according to physical laws and chains of cause and effect, action and reaction. Hobbes believed that all phenomena in the universe, without exception, can be explained in terms of the motions and interactions of material bodies. He did not believe in the soul, or in the mind as separate from the body, or in any of the other incorporeal and metaphysical entities in which other writers have believed. Hobbess view of human nature is strikingly original and is still important to contemporary politics.