Natural La and the Theory of Property Grotius to Hume [Paperback]

In this book, Stephen Buckle provides a historical perspective on the political philosophies of Locke and Hume, arguing that there are continuities in the development of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century political theory which have often gone unrecognized. He begins with a detailed exposition of Grotius's and Pufendorf's modern natural law theory, focusing on their accounts of the nature of natural law, human sociability, the development of forms of property, and the question of slavery. He then shows that Locke's political theory takes up and develops these basic themes of natural law. Buckle argues further that, rather than being a departure from this tradition, the moral sense theory of Hutcheson and Hume represents an attempt--which is not entirely successful--to underpin the natural law theory with an adequate moral psychology.

1. Hugo Grotius
2. Samuel Pufendorf
3. John Locke
4. Francis Hutcheson
5. David Hume
Appendix: The psychology of moral action: From Locke's Essay to Hutcheson's Inquiry;
Select bibliography
Index

The argument is well worth the close attention it demands --Political Studies

A beautifully written and extremely well researched book which offers a delightfully counter-intuitive, if not entirely persuasive, thesis. Moral, political and legal philosophers alike will find much here to enlighten them. --The Cambridge Law Journal