The Necessity Of The Absolute Power Of All Kings And In Particular Of The King Of England By Sir R Filmer

The necessity of the absolute power of all kings: and in particular, of the King of England. By Sir R. Filmer

Patriarcha and Other Political Works

Robert Filmer's prime assumption is that the Bible contains the entire truth about the nature of the world and the nature of society. Along with details of recorded history from the beginning to the death of the Apostles, the Bible also includes the laws that would govern history from that time to the end of the world. This central assumption was shared by nearly every member of Tory Christendom in England in the seventeenth century. In the same way, Filmer holds that it is impossible for a people to escape political anarchy once it is assumed that all individuals are independent and equal. It is also impossible for people to escape from collectivism, if it is granted that everyone has a moral right to an equal share of the gifts of nature. In explaining why Filmer remains both important and influential, Laslett argues that his reputation owes a great deal to the fortuitous circumstances of the time at which his works were resuscitated. His work passed almost unnoticed when it was first issued. Only the position of the Tory party gave his views prominence. The value of Patriarcha as a historical document consists primarily in its revelation of the strength and persistence in European culture of the patriarchal attitude to political problems. The opening essay by Laslett offers a brilliant analysis of late seventeenth-century English politics and philosophy. Long unavailable, this is a masterpiece of religious conservatism that still registers in debates at present.

Ideas and Contexts in France and England from the Renaissance to the Romantics

These essays examine the thought and works of a series of writers on political thought, religion, historiography and literature, from the 16th century to the 19th. Throughout, the author is concerned to situate individual thinkers in the context of their times and, in many of the essays, to illuminate the links between intellectual currents in France and England. Particular topics include Gallicanism, Neostoicism, the historical novel, and constitutionalism, while the figures dealt with range from Bodin and Hotman in the Renaissance, to Descartes and La Rochefoucauld in the Grand Siècle and Condorcet and Diderot in the Enlightenment. Less familiar figures include the Oxford historian, Degory Wheare, and the French constitutional theorist, Henrion de Pansey. Among the topics treated in the Romantic era are comparisons between the French and English revolutions, and the French obsession with Oliver Cromwell.