What method in enlightenment cold explain human nature?

in the enlightenment many people believed that having one powerful ruler was not great. this idea came forth because there were unfair laws that did not affect the king. philosophers such as Hobbes and john Locke started to question the power of these rulers. Hobbes wrote in his document called the Leviathan, that all people were created equal and put in nature without laws and that because there are no laws the people may do as they please. but because everyone is created equal, they may or may not have the same interests therefore creating competition, then someone must rise above the others, thus creating the idea of absolutism which is bad. so Hobbes basically says that all people are evil and selfish.