Natural rights and the new republicanism / Michael P. Zuckert.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Zuckert, Michael P., 1942-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Natural law.

Republicanism.

Political science--History--17th century.

Political science.

Political science--History--18th century.

Locke, John, 1632-1704.

Locke, John.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (418 pages)

Edition:

Course Book

Place of Publication:

Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press, 1994.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

In Natural Rights and the New Republicanism, Michael Zuckert proposes a new view of the political philosophy that lay behind the founding of the United States. In a book that will interest political scientists, historians, and philosophers, Zuckert looks at the Whig or opposition tradition as it developed in England. He argues that there were, in fact, three opposition traditions: Protestant, Grotian, and Lockean. Before the English Civil War the opposition was inspired by the effort to find the "one true Protestant politics--an effort that was seen to be a failure by the end of the Interregnum period. The Restoration saw the emergence of the Whigs, who sought a way to ground politics free from the sectarian theological-scriptural conflicts of the previous period. The Whigs were particularly influenced by the Dutch natural law philosopher Hugo Grotius. However, as Zuckert shows, by the mid-eighteenth century John Locke had replaced Grotius as the philosopher of the Whigs. Zuckert's analysis concludes with a penetrating examination of John Trenchard and Thomas Gordon, the English "Cato," who, he argues, brought together Lockean political philosophy and pre-existing Whig political science into a new and powerful synthesis. Although it has been misleadingly presented as a separate "classical republican" tradition in recent scholarly discussions, it is this "new republicanism" that served as the philosophical point of departure for the founders of the American republic.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Preface

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Prologue

Part I: Protestants

Chapter 1. Aristotelian Royalism and Reformation Absolutism: Divine Right Theory

Chapter 2. Aristotelian Constitutionalism and Reformation Contractarianism: From Ancient Constitution to Original Contract

Chapter 3. Contract and Christian Liberty: John Milton

Part II: Whigs

Chapter 4. Whig Contractarianisms and Rights

Chapter 5. The Master of Whig Political Philosophy

Chapter 6. A Neo-Harringtonian Moment? Whig Political Science and the Old Republicanism

Part III: Natural Rights and the New Republicanism

Chapter 7. Locke and the Reformation of Natural Law: Questions Concerning the Law of Nature

Chapter 8. Locke and the Reformation of Natural Law: Two Treatises of Government

Chapter 9. Locke and the Reformation of Natural Law: Of Property

Chapter 10. Locke and the Transformation of Whig Political Philosophy

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [377]-390) and index.

ISBN:

9786613133274

9781400808991

1400808995

9781400809011

1400809010

9781400813995

1400813999

9781283133272

128313327X

9781400821525

1400821525

OCLC:

730151792