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The Resource States of war : Enlightenment origins of the political, David William Bates

States of war : Enlightenment origins of the political, David William Bates

Creator
Summary
We fear that the growing threat of violent attack has upset the balance between existential concepts of political power, which emphasize security, and traditional notions of constitutional limits meant to protect civil liberties. We worry that constitutional states cannot, during a time of war, terror, and extreme crisis, maintain legality and preserve civil rights and freedoms. David Williams Bates allays these concerns by revisiting the theoretical origins of the modern constitutional state, which, he argues, recognized and made room for tensions among law, war, and the social order. We traditionally associate the Enlightenment with the taming of absolutist sovereign power through the establishment of a legal state based on the rights of individuals. In his critical rereading, Bates shows instead that Enlightenment thinkers conceived of political autonomy in a systematic, theoretical way. Focusing on the nature of foundational violence, war, and existential crises, eighteenth-century thinkers understood law and constitutional order not as constraints on political power but as the logical implication of that primordial force. Returning to the origin stories that informed the beginnings of political community, Bates reclaims the idea of law, warfare, and the social order as intertwining elements subject to complex historical development. Following an analysis of seminal works by seventeenth-century natural-law theorists, Bates reviews the major canonical thinkers of constitutional theory (Locke, Montesquieu, and Rousseau) from the perspective of existential security and sovereign power. Countering Carl Schmitt's influential notion of the autonomy of the political, Bates demonstrates that Enlightenment thinkers understood the autonomous political sphere as a space of law protecting individuals according to their political status, not as mere members of a historically contingent social order. -- Book Description
Language
eng
Work
Publication
Extent
xvii, 256 pages
Contents
  • Constitutional violence and enlightenment thought. Why enlightenment? On law and the origins of the political ; The concept of the political and the constitutional state
  • The autonomous state and the origin of the political ; States of law ; The instrumental state ; Reason of state and the origins of legitimacy
  • States of reasoning: modern natural-law theory. Disembodied reason and the nature of sovereignty in grotius ; Hobbes's Political robotics ; Pufendorf's Concept of the social
  • Locke's Natural history of the political. Why prerogative? ; Sovereign decision and the state of law ; nature, war, and the nature of war ; A natural history of the political ; Law in the postpolitical age ; A political-legal state ; A political community
  • Systems of sovereignty in Montesquieu. Two Montesquieus ; The state of war ; The political after war: systems of order ; States in war ; Exceptional states ; Technologies of balance
  • Rousseau's Cybernetic political body. Rousseau and the political ; The end of natural law ; Humans In (and out of) nature ; Political cybernetics ; Political bodies at war ; Rousseau and the modern state
  • From the concept of the political to the rule of law
Isbn
9780231158046
Instance
Label
States of war : Enlightenment origins of the political
Title
States of war
Title remainder
Enlightenment origins of the political
Statement of responsibility
David William Bates
Creator
Subject
Genre
Language
eng
Summary
We fear that the growing threat of violent attack has upset the balance between existential concepts of political power, which emphasize security, and traditional notions of constitutional limits meant to protect civil liberties. We worry that constitutional states cannot, during a time of war, terror, and extreme crisis, maintain legality and preserve civil rights and freedoms. David Williams Bates allays these concerns by revisiting the theoretical origins of the modern constitutional state, which, he argues, recognized and made room for tensions among law, war, and the social order. We traditionally associate the Enlightenment with the taming of absolutist sovereign power through the establishment of a legal state based on the rights of individuals. In his critical rereading, Bates shows instead that Enlightenment thinkers conceived of political autonomy in a systematic, theoretical way. Focusing on the nature of foundational violence, war, and existential crises, eighteenth-century thinkers understood law and constitutional order not as constraints on political power but as the logical implication of that primordial force. Returning to the origin stories that informed the beginnings of political community, Bates reclaims the idea of law, warfare, and the social order as intertwining elements subject to complex historical development. Following an analysis of seminal works by seventeenth-century natural-law theorists, Bates reviews the major canonical thinkers of constitutional theory (Locke, Montesquieu, and Rousseau) from the perspective of existential security and sovereign power. Countering Carl Schmitt's influential notion of the autonomy of the political, Bates demonstrates that Enlightenment thinkers understood the autonomous political sphere as a space of law protecting individuals according to their political status, not as mere members of a historically contingent social order. -- Book Description
Member of
Cataloging source
DLC
http://library.link/vocab/creatorName
Bates, David William
Index
index present
LC call number
JC171
LC item number
.B38 2012
Literary form
non fiction
Nature of contents
bibliography
Series statement
Columbia studies in political thought/political history.
http://library.link/vocab/subjectName
  • State, The
  • Sovereignty
  • Natural law
  • War (International law)
  • Enlightenment
  • Enlightenment
  • Natural law
  • Sovereignty
  • State, The
  • War (International law)
  • Politische Philosophie
  • Naturrecht
  • Souveränität
  • Aufklärung
  • Aufklärung
  • Naturrecht
  • Politische Philosophie
  • Souveränität
Label
States of war : Enlightenment origins of the political, David William Bates
Instantiates
Publication
Bibliography note
Includes bibliographical references and index
Carrier category
volume
Carrier category code
  • nc
Carrier MARC source
rdacarrier
Content category
text
Content type code
  • txt
Content type MARC source
rdacontent
Contents
Constitutional violence and enlightenment thought. Why enlightenment? On law and the origins of the political ; The concept of the political and the constitutional state -- The autonomous state and the origin of the political ; States of law ; The instrumental state ; Reason of state and the origins of legitimacy -- States of reasoning: modern natural-law theory. Disembodied reason and the nature of sovereignty in grotius ; Hobbes's Political robotics ; Pufendorf's Concept of the social -- Locke's Natural history of the political. Why prerogative? ; Sovereign decision and the state of law ; nature, war, and the nature of war ; A natural history of the political ; Law in the postpolitical age ; A political-legal state ; A political community -- Systems of sovereignty in Montesquieu. Two Montesquieus ; The state of war ; The political after war: systems of order ; States in war ; Exceptional states ; Technologies of balance -- Rousseau's Cybernetic political body. Rousseau and the political ; The end of natural law ; Humans In (and out of) nature ; Political cybernetics ; Political bodies at war ; Rousseau and the modern state -- From the concept of the political to the rule of law
Dimensions
23 cm.
Extent
xvii, 256 pages
Isbn
9780231158046
Isbn Type
(cloth : alk. paper)
Lccn
2011008695
Media category
unmediated
Media MARC source
rdamedia
Media type code
  • n
System control number
  • (OCoLC)704557516
  • (OCoLC)ocn704557516
Label
States of war : Enlightenment origins of the political, David William Bates
Publication
Bibliography note
Includes bibliographical references and index
Carrier category
volume
Carrier category code
  • nc
Carrier MARC source
rdacarrier
Content category
text
Content type code
  • txt
Content type MARC source
rdacontent
Contents
Constitutional violence and enlightenment thought. Why enlightenment? On law and the origins of the political ; The concept of the political and the constitutional state -- The autonomous state and the origin of the political ; States of law ; The instrumental state ; Reason of state and the origins of legitimacy -- States of reasoning: modern natural-law theory. Disembodied reason and the nature of sovereignty in grotius ; Hobbes's Political robotics ; Pufendorf's Concept of the social -- Locke's Natural history of the political. Why prerogative? ; Sovereign decision and the state of law ; nature, war, and the nature of war ; A natural history of the political ; Law in the postpolitical age ; A political-legal state ; A political community -- Systems of sovereignty in Montesquieu. Two Montesquieus ; The state of war ; The political after war: systems of order ; States in war ; Exceptional states ; Technologies of balance -- Rousseau's Cybernetic political body. Rousseau and the political ; The end of natural law ; Humans In (and out of) nature ; Political cybernetics ; Political bodies at war ; Rousseau and the modern state -- From the concept of the political to the rule of law
Dimensions
23 cm.
Extent
xvii, 256 pages
Isbn
9780231158046
Isbn Type
(cloth : alk. paper)
Lccn
2011008695
Media category
unmediated
Media MARC source
rdamedia
Media type code
  • n
System control number
  • (OCoLC)704557516
  • (OCoLC)ocn704557516

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