Hegel's Lectures on the History of Philosophy: Volume 3 (of 3) — Georg Hegel — John Shaqi
Hegel's Lectures on the History of Philosophy: Volume 3 (of 3)
Georg Hegel · en
way as we look at the fact that men have social instincts, sympathetic
inclinations, and so on.
5. PUFFENDORF.
In the struggle to give to just and equitable relations in the State
an independent basis of their own, and to found a judicial system of
government, reflective thought put forth its efforts; and this became to
it a real interest and concern. And, as in the case of Grotius, it was
also true of Puffendorf, that the instinct of mankind—that is, the social
instinct, &c.—was made the principle. Samuel von Puffendorf was born
in 1632 in Saxony; he studied public law, philosophy, and mathematics
at Leipzig and Jena; in 1661, as a professor at Heidelberg, he made
natural and civil law for the first time academic studies; in 1668 he
became tutor in a Swedish family, which office he later on exchanged
for the service of the House of Brandenburg, and in 1694 he died at
Berlin as a privy councillor. He wrote several works on political law
and history; we must specially mention his work, _De jure naturæ et
gentium_, Libr. viii., Londin. Scan. 1672, 4; and also his compendium _De
officio hominis_, published at the same place in 1673, 8, and _Elementa
jurisprudentiæ universalis_.[238] While the divine right of kings was
here still recognized—whereby they rendered account to God alone, or, at
all events, were still bound to take counsel of the Church—the impulses
and necessities present in mankind were now considered as well. These
were regarded as the inward principles for private and political law, and
from them the duties both of the government and of rulers were deduced,
so that the freedom of mankind might not be interfered with. The basis
of the state in Puffendorf’s view is the social instinct: the highest
end of the state is the peace and security of social life through the
transformation of inward duties as prescribed by conscience into external
duties as compelled by law.[239]
6. NEWTON.
The other side is that thought likewise applied itself to nature, and
in this connection Isaac Newton is famous by reason of his mathematical
discoveries and his work in physics. He was born in 1642 at Cambridge,
made a special study of mathematics, and became professor of the same at
Cambridge; later on he was made president of the Royal Society in London,
and he died in 1727.[240]