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
I | 17 |
MONTESQUIEU AND EMPIRICISM IN NATUral | 46 |
MONTESQUIEU AND EMPIRICISM IN POSITIVE LAw | 100 |
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argued argument Aristotle autres Barckhausen believed bien Book Bordeaux Brethe c'est Cartesian Chapter civil law claimed conception condemned critics Dedieu Défense Descartes despotism Discours doctrine Domat droit naturel Ehrard empiricism Esprit des lois être Euvres complètes fact fait faut Gravina Gressaye Grotius historical Hobbes Hobbes's hommes human ibid idea idées instinct ius gentium Jansenist l'Esprit l'état l'homme l'on La Brède les lois Lettres persanes liberty Locke Loeb edition lois naturelles Malebranche métaphysiques monarchy Montes Montesquieu Montesquieu's attitude Montesquieu's method moral n'est natural law nécessaires 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 religion Roman Rousseau School of Natural Shackleton slavery société society Sorbonne suicide theory Traité des devoirs Troglodytes University Usbek Vernière VIII Voltaire XVIIIe siècle