Argument and authority in early modern England : the presupposition of oaths and offices / Conal Condren.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Condren, Conal, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Oaths--England--History--17th century.

Oaths.

Political culture--England--History--17th century.

Political culture.

England--Officials and employees.

England.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (x, 399 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Other Title:

Argument & Authority in Early Modern England

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2006.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Conal Condren offers a radical reappraisal of the character of moral and political theory in early modern England through an exploration of pervasive arguments about office. In this context he explores the significance of oath-taking and three of the major crises around oaths and offices in the seventeenth century. This fresh focus on office brings into serious question much of what has been taken for granted in the study of early modern political and moral theory concerning, for example, the interplay of ideologies, the emergence of a public sphere, of liberalism, reason of state, de facto theory, and perhaps even political theory and moral agency as we know it. Argument and Authority is a major new work from a senior scholar of early modern political thought, of interest to a wide range of historians, philosophers and literary scholars.

Contents:

Part I. The Liquid Empire of Office. An overview

Ceremonies of office: the kiss of the Tutti-Man

Institutionalised office: a sense of the scavenger

The vocabulary of office

Offices of the intellect: player, poet and philosopher

Soul and conscience

Part II. The Authority and Insolence of Office

The cases of patriot and counsellor

Casuistry as the mediation of office

The case of resistance to superior power

Metaphor and political autonomy

Part III 'I, A, B'. An overview of the oath in seventeenth-century argument

Coronation oaths

The oath of allegiance of 1606

Engagement with a free state

The oath of allegiance and the Revolution of 1688.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).

Includes bibliographical references (p. 353-390) and index.

ISBN:

1-107-15626-2

1-280-43697-2

0-511-16882-9

0-511-16925-6

0-511-16786-5

0-511-31327-6

0-511-49047-X

0-511-16838-1

OCLC:

252515837