Rousseau’s 18th century views were the first challenge to the belief that humans are inherently selfish. Before Rousseau, earlier thinkers like Thomas Hobbes believed that without laws or a government life would be chaotic and violent. Rousseau asked to consider how humans lived prior to cities, prior to money, and prior to social hierarchy. In that “state of nature” humans met their individual needs (food, sleep, shelter, companions) by living for their own needs and not competing with each oth