Natural Law and Moral Philosophy
Natural Law and Moral Philosophy
$42.00
USDThis major contribution to the history of philosophy provides the most comprehensive guide to modern natural law theory available, sets out the full background to liberal ideas of rights and contractarianism, and offers an extensive study of the Scottish Enlightenment. The time span covered is considerable: from the natural law theories of Grotius and Suarez in the early seventeenth century to the American Revolution and the beginnings of utilitarianism. After a detailed survey of modern natural law theory, the book focuses on the Scottish Enlightenment and its European and American connections. Knud Haakonssen explains the relationship between natural law and civic humanist republicanism, and he shows the relevance of these ideas for the understanding of David Hume and Adam Smith. The result is a completely revised background to modern ideas of liberalism and communitarianism.
- Major contribution to the history of philosophy and political thought
- Genuine interdisciplinary interest for philosophy, political science and law
- Author is one of the foremost historians of philosophy
Reviews & endorsements
"...an interesting and important set of historical studies, written clearly and straightforwardly, resting on massive scholarship, and arguing for some challenging theses about matters that are still of lively theoretical interest." J.B. Schneewind, The Johns Hopkins University
"Natural Law and Moral Philosophy is an important canvass of a cultue at work. It is a study not simply of the rich linguistic matrix that constituted and supported the culture, but also of the publications, translations, and institutions that forged the moral personality for two centuries in Protestant Europe and North America." Martha K. Zebrowski, American Political Science Review
"Natural Law and Moral Philosophy is a singularly valuable addition to the library of anyone interested in the history of legal and political theory." Ronald Hamowy, Eighteenth Century Scotland
Product details
February 1996Paperback
9780521498029
400 pages
229 × 152 × 24 mm
0.613kg
Available
Table of Contents
- Introduction: the Scottish Enlightenment in the history of ideas
- 1. Natural law in the seventeenth century
- 2. Natural law and moral realism: the civic-humanist synthesis in Francis Hutcheson and George Turnbull
- 3. Between superstition and enthusiasm: David Hume's theory of justice, government and politics
- 4. Adam Smith out of context: his theory of rights in Prussian perspective
- 5. John Millar and the science of a legislator
- 6. Thomas Reid's moral and political philosophy
- 7. Dugald Stewart and the science of a legislator
- 8. The science of a legislator in James Mackintosh's moral philosophy
- 9. James Mill and Scottish moral philosophy
- 10. From natural law to the rights of man
- a European perspective on American debates
- Bibliography.
