This collection delves into significant and often unconventional Enlightenment texts concerning natural law. Spanning the 17th and 18th centuries with over forty volumes, it offers a profound exploration of classical liberal thought. The series illuminates the development of these ideas across moral philosophy, political theory, jurisprudence, and theology. It provides readers with a nuanced understanding of a pivotal intellectual era.
Heineccius's theory of natural law was in many ways an independent development situated both temporally and philosophically between the earlier natural law tradition of Samuel Pufendorf and Christian Thomasius, and the later theories of Christian Wolff. This book presents an overview of the wide-ranging European discourse on natural law.
Heineccius's natural law theory represents a distinct evolution between earlier thinkers like Pufendorf and later theorists such as Wolff. Unlike Pufendorf, who linked natural law to human nature, Heineccius based it solely on the divine will. The 1737 publication of his Methodical System, translated by George Turnbull in 1742, marked a significant contribution to natural law discourse. Turnbull, an influential figure in the Scottish Enlightenment, provided extensive commentaries and an independent Discourse, enriching the philosophical landscape of moral thought.