Abstract

In this thesis I have retrieved the modern language of the law of nature between the period 1625--1672. I have reconstructed this language as a response to the seventeenth century breakdown of society in Europe. ;In Chapters 1, 2 and 3, I lay out Hugo Grotius' moral and political theory grounded in three irreducible principles of self-preservation, the primacy of society and consent. These principles lead Grotius to develop a rich and pluralistic theory. ;Thomas Hobbes's theory calls into question the complex Grotian social and political arrangement and in its place provides an absolutist and homogeneous conception of the state. This is treated in Chapter 4. ;In Chapters 5 and 6, I lay out Samuel Pufendorf's moral and political theory. Pufendorf accepts Grotius's and Hobbes' initial premises but argues for a 'regular' or homogeneous state. ;The retrieval of the law of nature proposed in this thesis is important, for it radically calls into question the conventional manner in which we understand the seventeenth century. Among other things, this work illuminates the common foundation shared by contemporary liberals, communitarians and more radical theories.