Patriarcha: or The Natural Power of Kings. London: Walter Davis, 1680.

(LOCKE) FILMER, Sir Robert

Verlag:

First edition of Robert Filmer's chief work. 'No one knows the actual date of its composition: estimates vary from c.1628 to c.1648. On the whole, there are reasons for preferring an early date but we cannot, of course, tell why Filmer chose to preserve the manuscript yet not print it. By way of numerous biblical and classical illustrations, he recommends an exceptionally rigorous version of the right theory, asserting on the one hand the absolute authority of kings and, on the other, a correspondingly unconditional duty of passive obedience. His central stratagem is to develop the idea that all political authority is by nature patriarchal or paternal. Monarchy is the best and most natural form of government, and the king s authority is the same as or resembles that which a father has over his family' (Dictionary of Seventeenth-Century British Philosophers). 'Filmer's importance in the history of thought rests almost entirely on the fact that John Locke's Two Treatises of Government was directed against him. It has only recently been shown how extensive was Locke's preoccupation with Filmer in the second of his treatises as well as in the first. But the social theorists of the present day are also interested in Filmer's thinking as an expression of tradioionnal patriarchal attitudes towards authority and social structure. The relationship between Lock and Filmer has become the classic example of a rationalist-critical political system (the Lockian)confronting and ideological-determinist outlook (the Filmer view)' (Encyclopedia of Philosophy). PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: Small 8vo, frontispiece portrait of Charles II, [xiv], 141 pp., contemporary speckled calf panelled in blind, covers with a few scrapes, ownership inscription dated 1682 crossed through on endpaper, signature D browned, otherwise clean and fresh, a nice copy. Bestandsnummer des Verkäufers ABE-1728064176529

Bibliografische Details

Titel: Patriarcha: or The Natural Power of Kings. ...
Einband: Hardcover
Zustand: Near Fine