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Although Leibniz is universally regarded as the greatest German philosopher before Kant, his work as a political and moral philosopher is almost entirely neglected in the English-speaking world, where he is seen chiefly as a metaphysician, mathematical logician, and co-discoverer of calculus. Yet Leibniz' doctoral degree was in law and jurisprudence, and he served throughout his life as a judge and a diplomat; he was a valued political--legal adviser to Czar Peter the Great, to the King of Prussia in Berlin, and to the Holy Roman Emperor in Vienna. Patrick Riley recovers this crucial part of Leibniz' thought and activity.
For the first time--as we celebrate the 350th anniversary of Leibniz' birth--his political, moral, and legal thought are extensively discussed here in English. The text includes fragments of his work that have never before been translated. Riley shows that "justice as wise charity" has at least as much claim to be taken seriously as the familiar contractarian ideas of Hobbes and Locke. Since Leibniz was the greatest Platonist of early modernity, Riley argues, his version of Platonic idealism serves as the bridge from Plato himself to the greatest modern "critical" idealist, Kant. With Leibniz' Universal Jurisprudence we now have a fuller picture of one of the greatest general thinkers of the seventeenth century.
E-Book Content
LEIBNIZ' UNIVERSAL JURISPRUDENGE
LEIBNIZ' UNIVERSAL JURISPRUDENGE
Justice as the Chanty of the Wise
PATRICK
RILEY
H A R V A R D UNIVERSITY PRESS
Cambridge, Massachusetts
London, England
igg6
For Samuel H. Beer Vir bonus qui amat omnes
Copyright © 1996 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Riley, Patrick, 1 9 4 1 Leibniz' universal jurisprudence : justice as the charity of the wise / Patrick Riley, p.
cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index. I S B N 0-674-52407-1 (alk. paper) I. Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm, Freiherr von, 1646-1716. 2. Justice (Philosophy)—History—17th century. 4. Ethics, M o d e r n — 1 7 t h century History—17th century B2599J8R55 I72'.2'o92
I. Title.
1996
dc20
96-8903
3. Love.
5. L a w — P h i l o s o p h y —
Contents
Acknowledgments Note on Ldbniz Translations
ix xiv
Introduction
I
1. Foundations
14
2. Monadology and Justice
51
3. Theodicy as Universal Justice
89
4. Justice as Love and Benevolence
141
5. Practical Justice in the Human Forum
199
6. The Republic of Christendom
236
Conclusion
261
JVotes
277
Index
jjj
Acknowledgments
I owe my entire career as a Leibniz scholar to Harvard University, and more particularly to two of its greatest intellectual lights, Judith N. Shklar and Samuel H. Beer. It was Dita Shklar who, in 1969, persuaded me to prepare and publish my Political Writings of Leibniz and who urged me, up until her premature death in 1992, to write a book to be called Ancient and Modern Idealism: Plato, Leibniz, Kant. What I have now produced is not too far from that topic, and I hope that she would have been pleased by the present volume. But it would never have come into existence at all had not my old friend Sam Beer welcomed me back to Cambridge with constant encouragement (and the generous gift of his own office for my work). It is a pleasure to dedicate this book to him; the dedication. Vir bonus qui amat omnes, "a good man who loves everyone," applies to him with special aptness, and is an adaptation of Leibniz' definition