Marsilius of Padua: The Defender of the Peace

2007 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 544-546
Author(s):  
Bettina Koch
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Undergraduate Education ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
Cambridge University ◽  
Political Ideas ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
Marsilius Of Padua ◽  
History Of ◽  
Medieval Political Theory ◽  
The Church

Marsilius of Padua: The Defender of the Peace, Annabel Brett, ed. and trans., Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005, pp. lxi, 569.Marsilius of Padua's Defensor Pacis is one of the key texts of medieval political theory. His thought forms a cornerstone of the transition from medieval to modern political reasoning and is one of the Western classics in the history of political ideas. This early fourteenth-century thinker is not only well known for his secular political thought but also for a theory of the Church that foreshadows the Reformation. The importance of Marsilius of Padua is demonstrated by a continuing and increasing scholarly interest in his ideas. Moreover, the growing number of translations and re-translations of Marsilius's writings indicates his significance for graduate and undergraduate education as well as for scholars whose primary expertise is not in medieval political thought.

scholarly journals Beyond the Letter of His Master’s Thought : C.N.R. McCoy on Medieval Political Theory

2008 ◽  
Vol 64 (2) ◽  
pp. 467-483
Author(s):  
William P.Haggerty
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
Thomas Aquinas ◽  
Critical Examination ◽  
Marsilius Of Padua ◽  
History Of ◽  
Medieval Political Theory

Published in 1962, Charles N.R. McCoy’s The Structure of Political Thought remains an important, albeit neglected, work on the history of political philosophy. Though there has been some appreciation of his study, there has never been a critical examination of his treatment of medieval political theory. In my paper, I explore the structure of his argument in the two chapters on medieval thought, showing how McCoy centers his discussion on an investigation of the different interpretative methods Thomas Aquinas and Marsilius of Padua employ when reading Aristotle. He does so in order to establish how the Aristotelian teaching — concerning the structure of political thought — is best protected by (and fulfilled within) revelation.

scholarly journals A Founder on Founding: Jefferson's Advice to Koraes

2005 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 157
Author(s):  
Ioannis D. Evrigenis
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
Thomas Jefferson ◽  
Intellectual Life ◽  
Years Of Experience ◽  
American Founding ◽  
Political Ideas ◽  
History Of ◽  
Long Life ◽  
Over Time

<p>In 1823, shortly after the outbreak of the Greek Revolution, and in the context of a general attempt to gather support for the Greek cause, Adamantios Koraes wrote to Thomas Jefferson, whom he had met once in Paris, to request his advice on the founding of a Greek state. Although brief, the exchange between the two men provides a rare, if not unique, record of a founder's advice to an aspiring emulator. Koraes' role in Greek political and intellectual life, coupled with Jefferson's fame, have made the correspondence between the two men a source of some interest among Greek scholars, but Jefferson's advice has never been studied in the context of his broader political theory. This paper traces the history of the acquaintance of the two men and of their subsequent correspondence, and places Jefferson's recommendations in the context of his political thought. Written as it was with the benefit of a long life in politics and more than forty-five years of experience from the American founding, Jefferson's advice to Koraes provides a singular opportunity to assess his political ideas over time.</p>

Fortescue and the Political Theory of dominium

1985 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
pp. 777-797 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. H. Burns
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
Fundamental Concept ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Society ◽  
History Of Political Thought ◽  
The Past ◽  
Political Ideas ◽  
History Of

After more than five hundred years the political ideas of Sir John Fortescue (c. 1394–c. 1476) retain the potency which has ensured that they have seldom suffered total neglect, even if much of the interest they have aroused has been ideological in character. It was perhaps only in the 1930s that Fortescue first received appropriate attention in the context of the history of political thought; and the varied consideration devoted to him by scholars over the past quarter of a century suggests that the process of appraisal is by no means complete. Despite much discussion of Fortescue's basic political categories, it will be argued here, important dimensions of his thought have been fore-shortened – notably in regard to origins, basis, and character of political society as such. Again, some of the perspectives in which the fundamental concept of dominium has been presented may be misleading if they are applied to Fortescue's use of that concept without full recognition of his specific political purposes.

Political Thought in the Age of the Reformation

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Baylor
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
Martin Luther ◽  
John Calvin ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Ideas ◽  
Leading Role ◽  
The Reformation

This article focuses on the political thought of the Protestant reformers during the Reformation, both those thinkers historians commonly refer to as moderate or “magisterial” reformers (especially Martin Luther, John Calvin, and Huldrych Zwingli) and those they refer to as “radical” reformers. Although the political concerns of Protestantism remained profoundly religious, and most reformers retained in various guises the view that authority was bipartite, the political theory of the reformers was modern in its concentration on secular authority and the essential character, function, and scope of the state's power. The diversity of Reformation political thought also emerged over the issue of whether secular authorities should play a positive, even a leading role in the renewal of Christianity to which Protestant reformers were committed. In the mid-1520s, a massive popular insurrection, known as the German Peasants' War and partly inspired by the Reformation, produced a variety of challenging new political ideas. Its repression fundamentally altered the course of the Reformation and produced new divisions not only between magisterial and radical reformers but also amongst the surviving radicals.

The Place of Machiavelli in the History of Political Thought

1943 ◽  
Vol 37 (4) ◽  
pp. 626-641 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles N. R. McCoy
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Natural Law ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
History Of Political Thought ◽  
Greek City ◽  
Marsilius Of Padua ◽  
History Of ◽  
City States ◽  
The Mind ◽  
The Church

The chief reason for the lack of intelligibility in a course in the history of political thought is the absence of any standard by which the great writers in the field may justly be compared. The usual course in the history of political thought is thoroughly historical and scrupulously indifferent to philosophical analysis; at best, a semblance of comparative analysis is achieved by simply telling the student that different needs of different periods suggest different and equally valid theoretical constructions. The question of natural law, for example, is handled in something like the following fashion. The Aristotelian notion of natural law is no sooner inadequately in the mind of the student than it fails to survive the downfall of the Greek city states. The student is told that Aristotle's notion of natural law restricted his vision and blinded him to the inevitable growth of the empire of Philip, his own student. The Stoics, whose views were perfected by Cicero, held to a notion of natural law much more in keeping with the needs of a world civilization. The Church adopted the Stoic conception of natural law. Subsequently, after the writings of Aristotle had been discovered, St. Thomas Aquinas wedded natural law to the law of the Church. The Renaissance and Reformation liberated men's minds from the shackles of Mediaeval Scholasticism. The concept of natural law came gradually to be abandoned; it is already repudiated in the writings of William of Occam and Marsilius of Padua, and its disappearance is complete in Machiavelli. Accustomed to the tradition of 1066 and All That, the student gathers that this disappearance was “a good thing.” In the eighteenth century, there is a revival of natural law.

A Virtue for Courageous Minds

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aurelian Craiutu
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
French Revolution ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
Moral Virtue ◽  
Individual Liberty ◽  
History Of Political Thought ◽  
Common Notion ◽  
History Of ◽  
Benjamin Constant ◽  
Intellectual Foundations

Political moderation is the touchstone of democracy, which could not function without compromise and bargaining, yet it is one of the most understudied concepts in political theory. How can we explain this striking paradox? Why do we often underestimate the virtue of moderation? Seeking to answer these questions, this book examines moderation in modern French political thought and sheds light on the French Revolution and its legacy. The book begins with classical thinkers who extolled the virtues of a moderate approach to politics, such as Aristotle and Cicero. It then shows how Montesquieu inaugurated the modern rebirth of this tradition by laying the intellectual foundations for moderate government. The book looks at important figures such as Jacques Necker, Germaine de Staël, and Benjamin Constant, not only in the context of revolutionary France but throughout Europe. It traces how moderation evolves from an individual moral virtue into a set of institutional arrangements calculated to protect individual liberty, and explores the deep affinity between political moderation and constitutional complexity. The book demonstrates how moderation navigates between political extremes, and it challenges the common notion that moderation is an essentially conservative virtue, stressing instead its eclectic nature. Drawing on a broad range of writings in political theory, the history of political thought, philosophy, and law, the book reveals how the virtue of political moderation can address the profound complexities of the world today.

scholarly journals How Should We Categorize Approaches to the History of Political Thought?

2020 ◽  
Vol 83 (1) ◽  
pp. 91-114
Author(s):  
Adrian Blau
Keyword(s):  
Theoretical Analysis ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
Two Dimensional ◽  
History Of Political Thought ◽  
One Dimensional ◽  
History Of ◽  
New Framework

AbstractThis paper proposes a new framework for categorizing approaches to the history of political thought. Previous categorizations exclude much research; political theory, if included, is often caricatured. And previous categorizations are one-dimensional, presenting different approaches as alternatives. My framework is two-dimensional, distinguishing six kinds of end (two empirical, four theoretical) and six kinds of means. Importantly, these choices are not alternatives: studies may have more than one end and typically use several means. Studies with different ends often use some of the same means. And all studies straddle the supposed empirical/theoretical “divide.” Quentin Skinner himself expertly combines empirical and theoretical analysis—yet the latter is often overlooked, not least because of Skinner's own methodological pronouncements. This highlights a curious disjuncture in methodological writings, between what they say we do, and what we should do. What we should do is much broader than existing categorizations imply.

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