Freedom and the Construction of Europe, Vol. 2: Free Persons and Free States

Freedom, Today Perceived Simply As A Human Right, Was A Continually Contested Idea In The Early Modern Period. In Freedom And The Construction Of Europe An International Group Of Scholars Explore The Richness, Diversity And Complexity Of Thinking About Freedom In The Shaping Of Modernity. Volume 1 Examines Debates About Religious And Constitutional Liberties, As Well As Exploring The Tensions Between Free Will And Divine Omnipotence Across A Continent Of Proliferating Religious Denominations. Volume 2 Considers Free Persons And Free States, Examining Differing Views About Freedom Of Thought And Action And Their Relations To Conceptions Of Citizenship. Debates About Freedom Have Been Fundamental To The Construction Of Modern Europe, But Represent A Part Of Our Intellectual Heritage That Is Rarely Examined In Depth. These Volumes Provide Materials For Thinking In Fresh Ways Not Merely About The Concept Of Freedom, But How It Has Come To Be Understood In Our Own Time. V. 1. Religious Freedom And Civil Liberty -- V. 2. Free Persons And Free States. Edited By Quentin Skinner And Martin Van Gelderen. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. Half title page 2 Title page 4 Copyright page 5 Contents of Volume I 6 Contents of Volume II 8 Acknowledgements 10 Notes on contributors 13 Introduction 18 Part I Free persons and freedom of action 24 1 Human freedom and Jesuit moral theology 26 2 Freedom and self-possession: The case of Montaigne’s Essais 44 3 Autonomy and inner freedom: Lipsius and the revival of Stoicism 63 4 Freedom of the will as a basis of equality: Descartes, Princess Elisabeth and Poullain de la Barre 82 5 Language as a means and an obstacle to freedom: the case of Moses Mendelssohn 101 Part II Free citizens and the state 120 6 Liberty and citizenship in early modern English political discourse 122 7 Free elections and freedom of speech in English republican thought 145 8 John Milton’s free citizens and the politics of the family 163 9 Vattel’s Rousseau: ius gentium and the natural liberty of states 184 10 The state of freedom: Kant and his conservative critics 205 11 Freedom and state action in German late Enlightenment thought 225 12 The political conditions of free agency: the case of Mary Wollstonecraft 244 Part III Freedom and the limits of Europe 262 13 The idea of freedom in missionary writings about the New World 264 14 From European to cosmopolitan freedom 283 15 Is political freedom an Islamic value? 300 Bibliography 328 Index of names 401 Index of subjects 411 "Freedom, today perceived simply as a human right, was a continually contested idea in the early modern period. In Freedom and the Construction of Europe an international group of scholars explore the richness, diversity and complexity of thinking about freedom in the shaping of modernity. Volume 1 examines debates about religious and constitutional liberties, as well as exploring the tensions between free will and divine omnipotence across a continent of proliferating religious denominations. Volume 2 considers free persons and free states, examining differing views about freedom of thought and action and their relations to conceptions of citizenship. Debates about freedom have been fundamental to the construction of modern Europe, but represent a part of our intellectual heritage that is rarely examined in depth. These volumes provide materials for thinking in fresh ways not merely about the concept of freedom, but how it has come to be understood in our own time"--provided by publisher An internationally distinguished team of contributors explore the richness, diversity and complexity of ideas about freedom across early modern Europe, shedding fresh light on the tension between religious freedom and constitutional liberties, debates about the relationship between free persons and free states, and freedom as the ideal of citizenship.