History of Political Thought

Janet Coleman is the Professor of Ancient and Medieval Political Thought in the Government Department at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Previously she taught in the Politics Department at Exeter University and for the History Faculty of Cambridge University. She Studied at Yale University and at L'Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Paris. Her numerous publications include The Individual in Political Theory and Practice (ed. 1996), Ancient and Medieval Memories: Studies in the Reconstruction of the Past (1992), Against the State: Studies in Sedition and Rebellion (1990) and English Literature in History 1350-1400: Medieval Readers and Writers (1981). She is co-founder and co-editor of the international journal History of Political Thought.

• Preface viiiIntroduction 11 Medieval Political Ideas and Medieval Society 5Medieval Sources 9The Historical Context of Early Medieval Political Thought 11Carolingian Christian Kingship and Feudal Society 13Translatio Imperii 18Theocratic Kingship 19The Origins of Papal Authority and the Gelasian Doctrine 22Two Swords Theory 28The Twelfth-century ‘Renaissance’: Canon Lawyers and their Heirs 29The Twelfth-century ‘Renaissance’ and the Civil Lawyers 33Civilians and Canonists 37Individual and Collective Liberties 38Sovereignty and Corporations 42Natural Law, Rights and the Lawyers’ Concern for Individual Autonomy 46Origins of Property Rights 49Medieval Education: Practical Moral Philosophy of Ethics, Economics and Politics 50The Contribution of Arabic and Jewish Thinking to the Twelfth-century ‘Renaissance’ 54Aristotle in the Universities 56Ethics and Politics in the Liberal Arts Course 57The Purpose of Aristotelian Rhetorical Persuasion 59The Thirteenth ‘Aristotelian’ Century 61The Later Thirteenth-century Understanding of Rhetoric’s Service to a Prince: Giles of Rome 64Aristotelian Rhetoric 65Returning to Giles of Rome’s Rhetorical De regimine principum 69Rhetoric outside the University and Aristotle within the University 71Aristotle’s Ethics for Medieval University Students 73Lawyers versus the Arts Faculty Philosophers 76The New Mendicant Orders: Franciscans and Dominicans and Political Theory 772 St Thomas Aquinas 81Philosophy of Man 84Reality and Metaphysics 84Naming, Natures and Actual Existents 86Natures and Definitions 87Substantial Form and Corporeal Individuation 88Being and Essence 90Cause and Effect 91Grace Added to and Perfecting, Not Destroying, Nature 92Sense Origin of Knowing 92Reason and Will 95The Will’s Relation to Justice as Universal Principle and as Historically Contingent Conclusion 97Eudaimonia/beatitudo: Immortality and the Completion of Desire 98Rationality and the Freedom of the Will 99The Will and the Doctrine of Original Sin 100Natural Theology 101State and Church: The Consequences of Natural Theology 102Free Will and Responsibility 104Aquinas on Law and Politics 104Natural Law beyond Cicero 105Natural Human Community 106The Consequences of the Fall 109Individual Rights and the State’s Law 110The Contrast with Augustine 112The Mixed Constitution 113Private Property Rights 1153 John of Paris 118Biographical Details 120The Franciscan Position 122The Dominican Position 123The Origin of Government 124The Thomistic Underpinning of dominium in rebus, Lordship and Ownership of Things 126The Justification of Private Ownership 127Limitations on Government 130The Origin of the Priesthood 130The Relation of the Church to its Property 132Deposition Theory 1334 Marsilius of Padua 134Biographical Details 138A Reading of Discourse 1 139Some Observations from Discourse 2 158Conclusion 1665 William of Ockham 169Biographical Details 170Ockham’s Positions on Church and State 171Ockham’s Epistemology 172Ockham’s Dualism Concerning Secular and Spiritual Government: Continuing the Narrative 175Comparisons with Marsilius 177The Exceptional Exercise of Coercive Authority 178Natural Rights 179Corporation Theory 179Ockham’s ‘Absolutism’ 181How did Ockham Come to Hold These Views? 181Right Reason 185Scriptural Hermeneutics 188Ockham’s Ethics 189Conclusion 191The Late Medieval Fortunes of Corporation Theories in the Church’s ‘Conciliar Theory’ 1936 The Italian Renaissance and Machiavelli’s Political Theory 199The Italian City-states Compared with Other European Cities 199The Unconventional Aims of this Chapter 203Communal Discourses and Citizenship 207Urban Commerce 212The Venetian Way 213Perceived Benefits of Citizen Status 215Community, Civitas, Ranked Citizenship and Local Patriotisms 216The Involvement of Citizens in Late Thirteenth-century Communal Government 219The Communal Ideal and the Menace of Factions 220The Evolution of the Florentine Governing Class 222Who Wanted to Play an Active Role in Fifteenth-century Florentine Government? 228Humanism and Humanist Conceptions of Florentine Republicanism 230Fifteenth-century Florentine Ideology 238Niccolò Machiavelli 241Machiavelli’s Political Morality 247Founding and Maintaining the ‘Stato’ 251The Fixity of Man’s Nature 252Character Formation 254The ‘Fit’ Between Character and the Times 256Fortune 257The Impetuous Prince Who Must Learn How Not to Have Fixed Dispositions 260Learn to Imitate Foxes and Lions 262Machiavelli’s ‘Popular’ Government: His Views of the Popolo 266Conclusion 272Bibliography 277Index 291

"This is a very well-informed, thoughtful and scholarly account that is destined to be read closely (and with great profit) by specialists in the field as well as by the students for whom it is primarily intended." Francis Oakley, Edward Dorr Professor of the History of Ideas and President Emeritus of Williams College "Professor Coleman demonstrates an admirable grasp of the detail and subtlety of the philosophical arguments, and their relation to social and historial circumstances, including trends in wider spheres of thought [...] I found the chapter on Plato particularly illuminating and students will find much of ambiguity in The Republic clarified by Coleman's discussion.[...] Students of specialist courses in Greek, Stoic and early Christian political thought will gain much from this scholarly and erudite book by an acknowledged expert in the field"David Boucher, Cardiff University English Historical Review Vol 117, June 2002