Philosophy and Government 15721651 [Paperback]

Major new study of European political thought in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.This major contribution to understanding European political theory charts the formation of a distinctively modern political vocabulary, based upon the analysis of such major theorists as Montaigne, Grotius, Hobbes and the theorists of the English Revolution.This major contribution to understanding European political theory charts the formation of a distinctively modern political vocabulary, based upon the analysis of such major theorists as Montaigne, Grotius, Hobbes and the theorists of the English Revolution.This major new contribution to our understanding of European political theory will challenge the perspectives in which political thought is understood. Framed as a general account of the period between 1572 and 1651 it charts the formation of a distinctively modern political vocabulary, based on arguments of political necessity and raison d'etat in the work of the major theorists. While Dr. Tuck pays detailed attention to Montaigne, Grotius, Hobbes and the theorists of the English Revolution, he also reconsiders the origins of their conceptual vocabulary in humanist thought--particularly skepticism and stoicism--and its development and appropriation during the revolutions in Holland and France. This book will be welcomed by all historians of political thought and those interested in the development of the idea of the state.Introduction; 1. The Renaissance background; 2. Scepticism, stoicism and raison d'etat; 3. The spread of the new humanism; 4. The alternatives; 5. Hugo Grotius; 6. The English Revolution; 7. Thomas Hobbes; Conclusion; Bibliography; Index. On the whole this is a stimulating, exciting treatment of the evolution of political thought. It should stimulate even more interesting work in the future by pointing our attention in productive directions. Steven Rowan, Renaissance Quarterly