The Political Writings of Samuel Pufendorf

The Political Writings of Samuel Pufendorf
Author: Samuel Freiherr von Pufendorf
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages: 296
Release: 1994
Genre: Natural law
ISBN: 0195065603

Samuel Pufendorf's significance has long been understood by students of natural law, who remember him as the architect and systematizer of the modern natural law tradition begun by Grotius. His reputation has grown as scholars have begun to explore his influence on the Enlightenment, classical liberalism, and modern jurisprudence. Demonstrating how it is possible to live with political authority and why it is not possible to live well without it, Pufendorf's political philosophy remains most pertinent for anyone who wonders about the ethical legitimacy and practical necessity of the modern state. The Political Writings of Samuel Pufendorf presents the basic arguments and fundamental themes of the political and moral thought of Samuel Pufendorf with selections from the texts of his two major works, Elements of Universal Jurisprudence and The Law of Nature and of Nations. These two works have been brought together to make Pufendorf's moral and political thought more accessible with a new English translation, the first for both works in roughly sixty years. In this volume, Craig L. Carr, the editor, and Michael J. Seidler, the translator, have developed a volume that is comprehensive and representative of Pufendorf's thought without being repetitive, fragmented, or obscure. Contemporary students of politics and philosophy can find in Pufendorf an alternative to liberal individualism built upon a distinctive vision of human sociality.

Hugo Grotius in International Thought

Hugo Grotius in International Thought
Author: R. Jeffery
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 220
Release: 2006-09-02
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1403983518

Drawing on the development of 'Grotian' scholarship in international legal and political thought, this book seeks to ascertain precisely what the term has meant, both historically and as it is employed in contemporary scholarship.

Before Anarchy

Before Anarchy
Author: Theodore Christov
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 307
Release: 2016-01-11
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1316462641

How did the 'Hobbesian state of nature' and the 'discourse of anarchy' - separated by three centuries - come to be seen as virtually synonymous? Before Anarchy offers a novel account of Hobbes's interpersonal and international state of nature and rejects two dominant views. In one, international relations is a warlike Hobbesian anarchy, and in the other, state sovereignty eradicates the state of nature. In combining the contextualist method in the history of political thought and the historiographical method in international relations theory, Before Anarchy traces Hobbes's analogy between natural men and sovereign states and its reception by Pufendorf, Rousseau and Vattel in showing their intellectual convergence with Hobbes. Far from defending a 'realist' international theory, the leading political thinkers of early modernity were precursors of the most enlightened liberal theory of international society today. By demolishing twentieth-century anachronisms, Before Anarchy bridges the divide between political theory, international relations and intellectual history.

Corrective and Distributive Justice

Corrective and Distributive Justice
Author: Izhak Englard
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 256
Release: 2009-02-17
Genre: Law
ISBN: 0199748438

Corrective and Distributive Justice: From Aristotle to Modern Times retraces the intricate history of the distinction between corrective and distributive justice. This distinction is elaborated in the 5th book of Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics, which was rediscovered in Western Europe in the 12th and 13th centuries by the Scholastics and turned into a central topic in legal and theological scholarship. After a decline of interest in the wake of the enlightenment and secularization, a surprising revival of these notions of justice occurred in U.S. legal and philosophical discourse during the last four decades that has made this distinction a central issue in tort law, restitution and other important fields of private and public law. In literally hundreds of articles and a considerable number of books, the Aristotelian distinction has been elaborated, discussed, and applied. Englard's unique contribution to this aspect of legal history grants the contemporary reader a historical perspective that is vital for a deepened understanding of the distinction and modern concerns. Organized chronologically, Englard's research covers: Aristotle, High Scholastics, Late Scholastics, Post-Scholastics, and Modernity. The relevant literature is notoriously difficult to access, not only because of its Latin language, but because of the physical rarity of the relevant books scattered throughout the world. This book offers the modern reader a touchstone synthesis of intellectual and legal history.