The Principles of Natural and Politic Law (Natural Law and Enlightenment Classics) - Hardcover

Burlamaqui

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0865974969 ISBN 13: 9780865974968

Publisher: Liberty Fund Inc, 2006

Synopsis

Born in 1694, Jean-Jacques Burlamaqui helped transform the modern tradition of natural law and convey it to new generations.

Jean-Jacques Burlamaqui (1694-1748) was a Swiss jurist.

Petter Korkman is a Fellow at the Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies and is a Postdoctoral Researcher in Philosophy at the Academy of Finland.

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Review:

Ably translated into English by Thomas Nugent in 1748, this edition of The Principles of Natural and Politic Law by Jean-Jacques Burlamaqui (1694-1748) is expertly edited and enhanced with an Introduction by Petter Korkman (Fellow at the Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies and Postdoctoral Researcher in Philosophy at the Academy of Finland) and part of the Liberty Fund's outstanding 'Natural Law and Enlightenment Classics' series. An historical benchmark in the concept of individual rights, the writings of Burlamaqui were influential upon the work and thought of such later philosophers and political activists as Rousseau and Diderot, as well as exerting profound influence on the American Founding Fathers and their newly emerging constitutional system of governance. Indeed, Nugent's English translation became a standard textbook at both British and American universities in the 18th and 19th centuries. Also available in a hardcover edition (0865974969, $20.00), The Principles of Natural and Politic Law is a seminal addition to scholarly and academic Philosophy and Political Science History reference collections.

The Midwest Book Review
August 2006

Much evidence stacked up on my bookshelves suggests--pace Hawes--a determination to scrutinize and respect claims for the Enlightenment: Liberty Press's ongoing series Natural Law and Enlightenment Classics (which saw new editions this year of John Millar's An Historical View of the English Government: From the Settlement of the Saxons in Britain to the Revolution in 1688 and The Origin of the Distinction of Ranks, Francis Hutcheson's Logic, Metaphysics, and the Natural Sociability of Mankind, and Jean-Jacques Burlamaqui's The Principles of Natural and Politic Law); the several books that revalue Enlightenment aspirations as they make philosophy the master key for unlocking cultural preoccupations.

Studies in English Literature
Summer 2007

Synopsis:

The year 1694 saw the death of Samuel Pufendorf, who, with Hugo Grotius, was the foremost representative of the modern tradition of natural law theory, and the birth of Jean-Jacques Burlamaqui, who helped transform the tradition and convey it to new generations. As professor of natural law in Geneva, Burlamaqui used Pufendorf's works on natural law but taught and wrote on the subject in the vernacular, not in the traditional university Latin. By making natural jurisprudence more accessible, Burlamaqui helped make it part of civic education. Burlamaqui intended his writings to defend a middle road between the two main rival traditions in early modern natural law theory, that deriving from Leibniz and Wolff and that from Pufendorf and Barbeyrac. In fact, he seems closer to the former. The basis of this version of "The Principles of Natural and Politic Law" is Thomas Nugent's 1763 English translation, which became a standard textbook at Cambridge and many premier American colleges, including Princeton, Harvard, and the University of Pennsylvania. The first scholarly work on Burlamaqui was written by an American, M.Ray Forrest Harvey, who in 1937 argued that Burlamaqui was well known among America's Founding Fathers and that his writings exerted considerable influence upon the American constitutional system.

In his introduction, Nugent said of Burlamaqui: "His singular beauty consists in the alliance he so carefully points out between ethics and jurisprudence, religion and politics, after the example of Plato and Tully, and the other illustrious masters of antiquity."

About this edition

• Publisher: Liberty Fund Inc
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 0865974969
• ISBN 13: 9780865974968
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 579