The Whole Duty of Man, According to the Law of Nature (Natural Law and Enlightenment Classics)

Samuel Pufendorf's seminal work, The Whole Duty of Man, According to the Law of Nature (first published in Latin in 1673), was among the first to suggest a purely conventional basis for natural law. Rejecting scholasticism’s metaphysical theories, Pufendorf found the source of natural law in humanity’s need to cultivate sociability. At the same time, he distanced himself from Hobbes’s deduction of such needs from self-interest. The result was a sophisticated theory of the conventional character of man’s social persona and of all political institutions. Pufendorf wrote this work to make his insights accessible to a wide range of readers, especially university students. As ministers, teachers, and public servants, they would have to struggle with issues of sovereignty and of the relationship between church and state that dominated the new state system of Europe in the aftermath of the Peace of Westphalia (1648). The Whole Duty was first translated into English in 1691. The fourth edition was significantly revised—by anonymous editors—to include a great deal of the very important editorial material from Jean Barbeyrac’s French editions. This was reproduced in the fifth edition from 1735 that is republished here. The English translation provides a fascinating insight into the transplantation of Pufendorf’s political theory from a German absolutist milieu to an English parliamentarian one. Samuel Pufendorf (1632–1694) was one of the most important figures in early-modern political thought. An exact contemporary of Locke and Spinoza, he transformed the natural law theories of Grotius and Hobbes, developed striking ideas of toleration and of the relationship between church and state, and wrote extensive political histories and analyses of the constitution of the German empire. Jean Barbeyrac (1674–1744) was a Huguenot refugee who taught natural law successively in Berlin, Lausanne, and Amsterdam, and edited and translated into French the major natural law works of Grotius, Pufendorf, and Cumberland. Andrew Tooke (1673–1732) was headmaster of Chaterhouse School and professor of geometry at Gresham College, London. Ian Hunter is Australian Professorial Fellow in the Centre for the History of European Discourses, University of Queensland. David Saunders is Professor Emeritus in the Faculty of Arts at Griffith University. Knud Haakonssen is Professor of Intellectual History at the University of Sussex, England. Annotation Samuel Pufendorf's seminal work, The Whole Duty of Man, According to the Law of Nature (first published in Latin in 1673), was among the first to suggest a purely conventional basis for natural law. Rejecting scholasticism's metaphysical theories, Pufendorf found the source of natural law in humanity's need to cultivate sociability. At the same time, he distanced himself from Hobbes's deduction of such needs from self-interest. The result was a sophisticated theory of the conventional character of man's social persona and of all political institutions. Pufendorf wrote this work to make his insights accessible to a wide range of readers, especially university students. As ministers, teachers, and public servants, they would have to struggle with issues of sovereignty and of the relationship between church and state that dominated the new state system of Europe in the aftermath of the Peace of Westphalia (1648). The Whole Duty was first translated into English in 1691. The fourth edition was significantly revisedby anonymous editorsto include a great deal of the very important editorial material from Jean Barbeyrac's French editions. This was reproduced in the fifth edition from 1735 that is republished here. The English translation provides a fascinating insight into the transplantation of Pufendorf's political theory from a German absolutist milieu to an English parliamentarian one. Samuel Pufendorf (16321694) was one of the most important figures in early-modern political thought. An exact contemporary of Locke and Spinoza, he transformed the natural law theories of Grotius and Hobbes, developed striking ideas of toleration and of the relationship between church and state, and wrote extensive political histories and analyses of the constitution of the German empire. Jean Barbeyrac (16741744) was a Huguenot refugee who taught natural law successively in Berlin, Lausanne, and Amsterdam, and edited and translated into French the major natural law works of Grotius, Pufendorf, and Cumberland. Andrew Tooke (16731732) was headmaster of Chaterhouse School and professor of geometry at Gresham College, London. Ian Hunter is Australian Professorial Fellow in the Centre for the History of European Discourses, University of Queensland. David Saunders is Professor Emeritus in the Faculty of Arts at Griffith University. Knud Haakonssen is Professor of Intellectual History at the University of Sussex, England. In The Whole Duty Of Man (1691), First Published In Latin In 1673 As De Officio Hominis Et Civis, Pufendorf Elaborates His Conception Of Ethics, Which Separates Civil Duties From Religious Hopes. Unlike Many Christian Political Theologians Of The Seventeenth Century, Pufendorf Refused To Ground His Natural Law Ethics In The Ideal Of Human Perfection Or Holiness; Rather, He Grounded Them In The Need For Sociability, Which He Regarded As Simply A Means To An End - That Is, Human Self-preservation And Civil Peace. Like Grotius And Hobbes, Pufendorf Was Responding To The Religious Wars That Wracked Early Modern Europe By Constructing A Version Of Natural Law Capable Of Defending The Civil State Against The Religious And Moral Delegitimation Wielded By International Catholicism And Protestant Zealots.--jacket. The Whole Duty Of Man, According To The Law Of Nature -- Two Discourses And A Commentary / Jean Barbeyrac -- Note On The Translation -- The Judgement Of An Anonymous Writer On The Original Of This Abridgment -- Discourse On What Is Permitted By The Laws -- Discourse On The Benefits Conferred By The Laws. Samuel Pufendorf ; Translated By Andrew Tooke, 1691 ; Edited And With An Introduction By Ian Hunter And David Saunders. Two Discourses And A Commentary / By Jean Barbeyrac ; Translated By David Saunders. Includes Bibliographical References And Indexes. Works By Jean Barbeyrac Translated From The French. Front Matter......Page 1 Title Page......Page 5 Contents......Page 7 Introduction, p. ix......Page 9 Pufendorf's Whole Duty of Man......Page 19 Original Title Page......Page 21 To the Reader......Page 25 Contents, p. 11......Page 29 The Author's Preface, p. 15......Page 33 Book I, p. 27......Page 45 Book II, p. 166......Page 184 Original Index, p. 251......Page 269 Two Discourses and A Commentary by Jean Barbeyrac, p. 263......Page 281 Note on the Translation, p. 265......Page 283 The Judgment of an AnonymousWriter on the Original of This Abridgment, p. 267......Page 285 Discourse on What Is Permitted by the Laws, p. 307......Page 325 Discourse on the Benefits Conferred by the Laws, p. 331......Page 349 Index, p. 361......Page 379 End of the Book, 382......Page 400