Natural Law and Toleration in the Early Enlightenment
Jon Parkin and Timothy Stanton
Abstract
This book examines the relationship between natural law and toleration during the Early Enlightenment. Modern discussion of tolerationist theories during this period can suggest that such ideas were articulated in an essentially secular and individualist mode. In fact some of the most important discussions of toleration at this time emerged from writers who were committed to a more complex structure of assumption and belief in which natural law ideas were foundational. The consequences of this fact for theories of toleration have not (until now) been systematically investigated. This book prov ... More
This book examines the relationship between natural law and toleration during the Early Enlightenment. Modern discussion of tolerationist theories during this period can suggest that such ideas were articulated in an essentially secular and individualist mode. In fact some of the most important discussions of toleration at this time emerged from writers who were committed to a more complex structure of assumption and belief in which natural law ideas were foundational. The consequences of this fact for theories of toleration have not (until now) been systematically investigated. This book provides new insights into the relationship between natural law and toleration in the work of Samuel Pufendorf, John Locke, Christian Thomasius, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Jean Barbeyrac, and Francis Hutcheson. Taken together the chapters uncover the diverse ways in which the distinctive natural law arguments helped to structure accounts of toleration that remain important for us today.
Keywords:
natural law,
toleration,
Early Enlightenment,
Samuel Pufendorf,
John Locke,
Christian Thomasius,
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz,
Jean Barbeyrac,
Francis Hutcheson
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2013 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780197265406 |
| Published to British Academy Scholarship Online: January 2014 |
DOI:10.5871/bacad/9780197265406.001.0001 |
Authors
Affiliations are at time of print publication.
Jon Parkin, editor
St Hugh's College, Oxford
Timothy Stanton, editor
University of York
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