Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-fbnjt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-06T09:00:09.717Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Design of Montesquieu's The Spirit of the Laws: The Triumph of Freedom over Determinism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 May 2009

ANA J. SAMUEL
ANA J. SAMUEL*
Affiliation:
University of Notre Dame and Witherspoon Institute
*
Ana J. Samuel is a Ph.D. Candidate in Political Science at University of Notre Dame and Research Scholar at the Witherspoon Institute, 16 Stockton Street, Princeton, NJ 08540 ([email protected]).
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

One of the perennial puzzles of Montesquieu's The Spirit of the Laws is whether it has a coherent design. Although the dominant line of thinking is that this work has no unified structure, another believes it to have some organizing principle, even though proposals as to what it may be have failed to convince for lack of ability to account for various features of the work. I propose that The Spirit of the Laws is organized in a dialectical way, juxtaposing the antitheses of human freedom and determination. The tension between these is manifest in the first half of the work and resolved in the middle, and human freedom worked out and advanced in the second half. This article solves the long-standing question of the design of The Spirit of the Laws and reveals that the work's ultimate purpose is to champion human liberty over determination, contrary to the views of those who read the work as deterministic.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 103 , Issue 2 , May 2009 , pp. 305 - 321
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Aron, Raymond. 1968. Main Currents in Sociological Thought. Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Co.Google Scholar
Berger, Peter L. 1992. “Sociology: A Disinvitation.” Sociology (November-December). www.cooperativeindividualism.org/berger-peter_on-sociology-as-a-science.htmlCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berlin, Isaian. 1980. “Montesquieu.” In Against the Current: Essays in the History of Ideas, ed. Hardy, Henry. New York: Viking Press.Google Scholar
Carrese, Paul O. 2003. The Cloaking of Power: Montesquieu, Blackstone, and the Rise of Judicial Activism. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carrese, Paul O. 2004. “Montesquieu's Complex Natural Right and Moderate Liberalism.” Polity 2 (Jan): 227–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Courtney, C.P. 2001. “Montesquieu and Natural Law.” In Montesquieu's Science of Politics: Essays on The Spirit of the Laws, eds. Carrithers, D., Mosher, M.A., and Rahe, P.A.. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.Google Scholar
Cox, Iris. 1983. Montesquieu and the History of French Laws. Oxford: Voltaire Foundation at the Taylor Institution.Google Scholar
Gay, Peter. 1973. The Enlightenment: An Interpretation. New York: Alfred A Knopf.Google Scholar
Kingston, Rebecca. 2001. “Montesquieu on Religion and on the Question of Toleration.” In Montesquieu's Science of Politics: Essays on the Spirit of the Laws, eds. Carrithers, D., Mosher, M.A., and Rahe, P.A.. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.Google Scholar
Krause, Sharon R. 2000. “The Spirit of Separate Powers in Montesquieu.” Review of Politics 2 (Spring): 231–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Krause, Sharon R. 2002. Liberalism with Honor. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Levi-Malvano, Etorre. 1992. Montesquieu and Machiavelli. Trans. Pansini, A.J.. Kopperl, TX: Greenvale Press.Google Scholar
Machiavelli, . [1532] 1998. The Prince. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MacIntyre, Alasdair. 1998. “Social Science Methodology as the Ideology of Bureaucratic Authority.” In The MacIntyre Reader, ed. Knight, Kelvin. Oxford: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Montesquieu, . 1914. Correspondance de Montesquieu: Collection bordelaise des inedits de Montesquieu. Vol. II. Paris: Champion.Google Scholar
Montesquieu, . 1973. L'Esprit des Lois. ed. Derathé, Robert. Paris: Garnier Frères.Google Scholar
Montesquieu, . 1950. L'Esprit des Lois. ed. de la Gressaye, Jean. Paris: Société Les Belles Lettres.Google Scholar
Montesquieu, . 1989. The Spirit of the Laws, eds. Cohler, A., Miller, B., and Stone, H.. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Montesquieu, . [1757] 1967. Essai sur le Goût, ed. Beyer, Charles-Jacques. Genève: Librairie Droz.Google Scholar
Oake, Roger B. 1948. “De L'Esprit des Lois, Books: XXVI–XXXI.” Modern Language Notes 63.3 (March): 167–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pangle, Thomas. 1973. Montesquieu's Philosophy of Liberalism: A Commentary on The Spirit of the Laws. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Patterson, Orlando. 2002. “The Last Sociologist.” New York Times May 19.Google Scholar
Rahe, Paul A. 2001. “Forms of Government: Structure, Principle, Object and Aim.” In Montesquieu's Science of Politics: Essays on The Spirit of the Laws, eds. Carrithers, D., Mosher, M.A., and Rahe, P.A.. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.Google Scholar
Rahe, Paul A. 2009. Montesquieu and the Logic of Liberty. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Rosso, Corrado. 1971. Montesquieu Moraliste: Des Lois Au Bonheur. Trans. Regaldo, Marc. Bordeau: Ducros.Google Scholar
Schaub, Diana. 1995. Erotic Liberalism: Women and Revolution in Montesquieu's Persian Letters. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.Google Scholar
Shackleton, Robert. 1988. Essays on Montesquieu and on the Enlightenment. Oxford: Voltaire Foundation at the Taylor Institution.Google Scholar
Shklar, Judith. 1987. Montesquieu. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Sullivan, Vickie B. 2006. “Against the Despotism of a Republic: Montesquieu's Correction of Machiavelli in the Name of the Security of the Individual.” History of Political Thought 27 (Summer): 263–89.Google Scholar
Volpilhac-Auger, Catherine. 2002. “Montesquieu et l'impérialisme grec: Alexandre ou l'art de la conquête.” In Montesquieu and the Spirit of Modernity. Oxford: Voltaire Foundation at the Taylor Institution.Google Scholar
Volpilhac-Auger, Catherine. 2005. “Une nouvelle ‘chaîne secrète’ de L'Esprit des lois: l'histoire du texte.” In Montesquieu en 2005. Oxford: Polestar Scientifica.Google Scholar
Voltaire, . 1962. “L'ABC.” In Philosophical Dictionary. New York: Harcourt, Brace and World.Google Scholar
Zuckert, Michael. 2001. “Natural Law, Natural Rights, and Classical Liberalism: On Montesquieu's Critique of Hobbes.” In Natural Law and Modern Moral Philosophy, eds. Paul, Ellen F., Miller, Fred D., and Paul, Jeffrey. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Zuckert, Michael. 2004. “Natural Rights and Modern Constitutionalism.” Journal of International Human Rights 2 (Spring): 9–15.Google Scholar
Submit a response

Comments

No Comments have been published for this article.