III PUFENDORF AND THE NATURALISTS The work of Hobbes placed him at once among the foremost political thinkers. His theories became the center of animated controversy, as well as the source of enormous influence throughout western Europe. In 1658, Samuel von Pufendorf spent eight months in a Danish prison, without access to books, meditating on what he had read in Hobbes and Grotius.22 Several years afterward he published a ponderous volume entitled De Jure Naturae et Gentium,23 in which he combined many of the theories of Hobbes with a large part of the practical code elaborated by Grotius. Where Grotius 24 22 Barbeyrac's Pufendorf, préf., sec. 30. 23 Pufendorf lived 1632-1694. His De jure naturae et gentium was first published in 1672. Materials for what follows have been taken from the Amsterdam edition of 1704, Barbeyrac's French translation, and the English translation by Basil Kennett. An abridged edition, entitled De officiis hominis et civis juxta legem naturalem, appeared in 1673. See Avril, in Pillet, Les fondateurs, pp. 331-383; Franck, Réformateurs, pp. 333-343; Phillipson, in Macdonell and ManGreat Jurists, pp. 305-344. son, 24 Avril says: "Son maître de philosophie avec lequel il ne reste pas toujours en parfaite communion, ce fut Hobbes. Son maître pour la jurisprudence ne fut autre que Grotius." Pillet, Les fondateurs, p. 378. According to Dunning," Pafendorf's system reveals most distinctly the influence of his two great predecessors, and in general it may be said to be directed toward a conciliation of their conflicting views. Where his philosophy is concerned with the concepts of ethics, he clearly leans to the principles of Grotius; where he takes up more purely political topics, the Hobbesian doctrine assumes the more conspicuous place. Political Theories, Luther to Montesquieu, p. 318. Hély Hely says: que fait-il? il mele aux idées de Grotius quelques opinions de Hobbes, et c'est tout. Etude, p. 214. had united the inductive and the deductive methods to produce a practical system leavened with a rational idealism, Pufendorf constantly subordinated the actual state of international relations to a priori assumptions and unreal conclusions. In an interesting comparison of the work of the two publicists, Barbeyrac has pointed out that where Grotius touched only incidentally upon such topics as natural right, natural equality, and the state of nature, Pufendorf devoted carefully planned chapters to these subjects, that where Grotius used the natural law only to support his conclusions on particular questions, Pufendorf elaborated a complete system of the laws of nature.25 Where Pufendorf differed from Grotius his opinion was usually traceable to the influence of Hobbes. Puf An important part of De Jure Naturae et Gentium was devoted to a detailed exposition of the law of nature. endorf rejected Grotius' definition of law, and followed Hobbes in defining it as the injunction or command "by which a sovereign obliges a subject to conform his actions to what he prescribes."26 His classification of law as either divine 25 Barbeyrac's Pufendorf, préf., sec. 31. See extract from this section, supra, p. 55. It is sometimes said that Pufendorf was to Grotius what the systematizer is to the inventor, what, for illustration, Wolff was to Leibnitz in the domain of international law. See Franck, Réformateurs p. 336; Phillipson, in Macdonell and Manson, Great Jurists p. 315. The comparison seems misleading, however, in view of the fundamental difference between their theories of international relations and the law of nations. 26 1,2,6; 1,6,1-4; I,6,14. or human with reference to its source, and natural or posi 27 tive with reference to its subject-matter, was also borrowed from Hobbes. Pufendorf rejected Grotius' definition of natural law as only leading around in an inconclusive circle.28 He defined it himself as that universal and perpetual law which is deliberately ordained by the will of God, is "so exactly congruous with the rational and social nature of man that human kind can not maintain an honest and peaceful society without it," and is capable of being discovered by unperverted human reason. 29 The state of nature was the starting-point for an important part of Pufendorf's theory. He used the notion in two senses; the first analytical, indicating "such a state as we may conceive man to be placed in by his bare nativity, when abstraction is made of all the rules and institutions, either of human invention, or of the suggestion and revelation of Heaven;"30the second historical, as describing an actual condition which had prevailed at some time among each of the various races of men.31In either case, he 27 28 1,6,18. Barbeyrac thought the difference between their definitions one of words only, and that both traced natural law ultimately to the will of God. See his notes to this section in his translation of Pufendorf. 29 1,6,13 and 18; II,3, where the definition is developed in great detail. |