The Cambridge History of Eighteenth-Century Political Thought, Volume 1

Lecturer in History and Fellow Mark Goldie

Cambridge University Press, Aug 31, 2006 - History - 919 pages

This major work of academic reference provides a comprehensive overview of the development of western political thought during the European enlightenment. Written by a distinguished team of international contributors, this Cambridge History is the latest in a sequence of volumes that is now firmly established as the principal reference source for the history of political thought. Every major theme in eighteenth-century political thought is covered in a series of essays at once scholarly and accessible, and the essays are complemented by extensive guides for further reading, and brief biographical notes of the major characters in the text, including Rousseau, Montesquieu and David Hume. Of interest and relevance to students and scholars of politics and history at all levels from beginning undergraduate upwards, this volume chronicles one of the most exciting and rewarding of all periods in the development of western thinking about politics, man (and increasingly woman), and society.

Contents

• Introduction I: 1
• The ancien régime and its critics: 9
• The English system of liberty: 40
• Scepticism priestcraft and toleration: 79
• Piety and politics in the century of lights: 110
• The new light of reason: 147
• Voltaire: 159
• Encyclopedias and the diffusion of knowledge: 172
• Optimism progress and philosophical history: 195
• Natural jurisprudence and the science of legislation: 251
• IO Natural rights in the Scottish Enlightenment: 291
• The mixed constitution and the common law: 317
• I2 Social contract theory and its critics: 347
• The equilibrium between consent and natural law in Locke: 350
• Bossuet and the challenge of divine right to contract theory: 354
• The anticontractarianism of Hume and Bentham: 355
• French contractarianism before Rousseau: 358
• Rousseau and the radicalisation of social contract theory: 362
• Kant and the social contract as an ideal of reason: 369
• The decline of social contract theory: 373
• Commerce luxury and political economy 13 The early Enlightenment debate on commerce and luxury: 379
• Fénelon: 383
• Mandeville: 387
• Shaftesbury: 395
• Hutcheson: 399
• Berkeley: 401
• The early Montesquieu: 404
• Melon: 409
• Voltaire: 412
• Physiocracy and the politics of laissezfaire: 419
• from Quesnay to Turgot: 425
• From wealth creation to legal despotism: 429
• Critiques of physiocracy and later responses: 434
• Physiocracy outside France: 438
• Conclusions: 441
• Scottish political economy: 443
• Legislators versus politicians in a mercantile state: 449
• The conditions of growth: 452
• The positive duties of the legislator in commercial society: 457
• Property community and citizenship: 465
• Needs and society: 471
• Property and the progress of the arts and sciences: 475
• The Gracchi and their legacy: 480
• A modern agrarian: 488
• Conclusion: 492
• The promotion of public happiness 17 Philosophical kingship and enlightened despotism: 497
• Frederick II Catherine II Joseph II: 504
• The idea of despotism: 511
• The idea of the enlightened despot: 514
• Conclusion: 522
• Cameralism and the sciences of the state: 525
• Oeconomy and the Hausvaterliteratur: 530
• Justi: 537
• Sonnenfels: 542
• Utilitarianism and the reform of the criminal law: 547
• Liberty and the criminal law: 548
• Crime and punishment in Beccaria: 551
• Benthams theory of proportion: 557
• The debate over the death penalty: 563
• Transportation and imprisonment: 566
• Enlightenment and reform: 568
• Republicanism and popular sovereignty: 573
• Mably: 577
• Diderot: 579
• Venice and Geneva: 583
• S Kant: 587
• Fichte: 592
• Humboldt: 596
• The Enlightenment and revolution: 601
• Political languages of the French Revolution: 626
• British radicalism and the antiJacobins: 660
• Ideology and the origins of social science: 688
• Biographies: 711
• Bibliography: 787
• Index: 901

About the author

Mark Goldie is a University Senior Lecturer in History and a Fellow of Churchill College, Cambridge.

Mark Goldie is a University Senior Lecturer in History and a Fellow of Churchill College, Cambridge.

Robert Wokler (1942-2006) taught for many years at the University of Manchester, and subsequently taught at Yale University, Connecticut.

Bibliographic information

• Title: The Cambridge History of Eighteenth-Century Political Thought, Volume 1; Cambridge histories online; The Cambridge History of Political Thought
• Author: Lecturer in History and Fellow Mark Goldie
• Editors: Mark Goldie, Robert Wokler
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2006
• ISBN: 0521374227, 9780521374224
• Length: 919 pages
• Subjects: History / Social History; Political Science / History & Theory