The Aristotelian characterization of humankind as a collective zoon politikon (political animal) was called into question by Hobbes. The civil panic resultant of the presence of unlimited liberty in a state of nature requires a sovereign to cede certain of its individual liberties for its maintenance, but according to Hobbes the purpose of doing so does not signify some set of pessimistic animal spirits intrinsic to humans. Rather, the inability of individuals and coalitions to attain full mutual intelligibility and certainty spawn a non-cooperative game in which expected utility functions increase where preemption founded in threat mitigation is optimized. From Leviathan: “Feare of oppression, disposeth a man to anticipate, or to seek ayd by society: for there is no other way by which a man can secure his life and liberty.”