Montesquieu and the Philosophy of Natural LawIn the last hundred years, the philosophy of natural law has suffered a fate that could hardly have been envisaged by the seventeenth and eighteenth century exponents of its universality and eternity: it has become old-fashioned. The positivists and the Marxists were happy to throw eternal moral ity out of the window, confident that some magic temporal harmony would eventually follow Progress in by the front door. Their hopes may not have been fully realized, but they did succeed in discrediting natural law. What is often not appreciated is the extent to which we have adopted the tenets of the philosophy they despised, borh in the field of politics, and in the field of personal and social ethics, which Barbeyrac called "la science des mreurs" and which the positivists re christened "social science". Consequently, though we live in a world whose freedom, such as it is, is largely a result of the popularization of the philosophy of natural law, and whose conscious and unconscious standards, such as they are, are a result of that philosophy as it became combined with Christianity, the doctrine of natural law is itself for gotten. In view of the oblivion into which it has fallen, natural law is a concept which means little to the average reader. All too often, Montesquieu scholars have traded on this oblivion in order to give an exaggerated picture of his originality. |
Contents
THE ORIGINALITY OF MONTESQUIEUS METHOD | 22 |
MONTESQUIEU AND EMPIRICISM IN NATURAL | 46 |
THE STATE OF NATURE AND THE ORIGIN OF SOCIETY | 65 |
MONTESQUIEU AND EMPIRICISM IN POSITIVE LAW | 100 |
RATIONALISM IN POSITIVE LAW MONTESQUIEU | 134 |
MONTESQUIEUS CONCEPTION OF LAW | 177 |
Conclusion | 193 |
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Common terms and phrases
argued argument Aristotle autres Barckhausen believed bien Book Bordeaux Brethe c'est Cartesian censure religieuse Chapter choses civil law claimed conception condemned critics Dedieu Défense Descartes despotism discussion doctrine Domat droit naturel empirical empiricism Esprit des lois être fact fait faut Gravina Gressaye Grotius historical Hobbes Hobbes's hommes human ibid idea idées incest instinct ius gentium Jansenist jurists l'Esprit l'état l'homme l'on La Brède les lois Lettres persanes liberty Locke lois naturelles Malebranche métaphysiques monarchy Montes Montesquieu Montesquieu's attitude Montesquieu's method moral n'est nations natural law nécessaire Œuvres original contract Origines iuris civilis Pensée peuple peut philosophers of natural political politique polygamy positive law positivists président principle punishment qu'il question quieu raison rapports reason religion Roman Rousseau School of Natural scientific Shackleton slavery société society Sorbonne suicide theory Traité des devoirs Troglodytes Usbek Vernière VIII XVIIIe siècle