Kari Saastamoinen THE MORALITY OF THE FALLEN MAN Societas Historica Finlandiae Suomen Historiallinen Seura Finska Historiska Samfundet Studia Historica 52 Kari Saastamoinen The Morality of the Fallen Man Samuel Pufendorf on Natural Law SHS / Helsinki / 1995 Cover: Rauno Enden & Kari Saastamoinen The Finnish Historical Society has published this study with the permission, granted on 6 September 1994, of Helsinki University, Faculty of Arts. Distributor: Tiedekirja, Kirkkokatu 14, 00170 Helsinki, Finland Tel: 358-0-635177, Fax 358-0-635017 Keywords: Samuel Pufendorf — natural law — history of moral philosophy ISSN 0081-6493 ISBN 951-710-003-5 Production: Kirjakas/Norstedts, Stockholm, 1995 Acknowledgements This work was written as a doctoral dissertation at the Department of History, University of Helsinki. There, my greatest dept is to the late Matti Viikari, who not only suggested me to examine Pufendorf and took me into his research project on intellectual history, but also showed that history can be an intellectually stimulating discipline. I should also like to thank Pekka Suvanto and Päivi Setälä for their teaching and encouragement, and Hannes Saarinen for his help at the last stages of my work. As for the study of Pufendorf 's moral theory, I am especially grateful to Simo Knuuttila, who has commented on my work at its different stages, giving me invaluable guidance and critique. He and Lars D. Eriksson have acted as the official referees of my thesis. Neither of them, of course, bears any responsibility for the views I present in my work. Of the friends and colleagues who have helped me — sometimes in ways they are not aware of — I am especially indebted to Heikki Mikkeli, Markku Peltonen, and Juha Sihvola, who have unhesitatingly offered their assistance whenever I have needed it. I should also like to mention with gratitude Risto Heiskala, Tapani Hietaniemi, Tuomas Nevanlinna, Jarmo Pankamaa, Tuija Pulkkinen, Juha Siltala, and Ilkka Turunen. Micheal Briody has meticulously corrected the English language of the manuscript. Any errors in the final monograph are due to the additions I have made after his revision. I also wish to express my warmest thanks to the staff and researchers at the Christina Institute for Women Studies for their help and sparkling company during the last two years. Financially this study has been supported by the Academy of Finland, Finnish Cultural Fund, Väino Tanner Foundation, and the University of Helsinki. I thank all these institutions. The Renvall-institute of Historical Research has provided me with working facilities, of which I am most grateful. I am also indebted to the Finnish Historical Society for accepting my work to their Studia Historica series, and to Rauno Enden for bringing it into its published form. Finally, I wish to thank my close ones — especially my mother Maija — for their support, and for their patience. Helsinki, February 1995 .A+a4r-.,, 4.,1• Contents ABBREVIATIONS 9 INTRODUCTION 11 PUFENDORF'S LIFE AND WORKS 21 PART ONE: THE IDEA OF NATURAL LAW 25 The novelty of the discipline of natural law 25 The refutation of moral relativism 30 Pufendorf's Lutheran inheritance 38 PART TWO: THE THEORETICAL JUSTIFICATION OF NATURAL LAW 53 The scientific presentation of natural law 54 The problem of the fundamental principle 62 Natural law and natural inclinations 72 The foundation of natural law in Elementa 77 The deduction of the fundamental principle 83 PART THREE: THE NORMATIVE CHARACTER OF NATURAL LAW 95 The theory of obligation 95 The disagreement with Grotius 110 The impossibility of consequentialism 119 PART FOUR: NATURAL LAW AS A SOCIAL PHENOMENON 129 The awareness of natural law 130 Habitual behaviour 139 The pursuit of security 140 The desire for appreciation 149 The fear of God 158 CONCLUSION 172 PRIMARY SOURCES 175 LITERATURE 176 INDEX OF NAMES 179 Abbreviations Elementa Elementorum juresprudentiae universalis JNG De jure naturae et gentium, first 1672 edition JNG 1684 De jure naturae et gentium, second 1684 edition OHC De officio hominis et civis IBP De iure belli ac pacis De statu De statu hominum naturali in Dissertationes academicae selectiores A Note on Translations English quotations from De jure naturae et gentium, Elementorum Jurespudenitia universalis, and De iure belli ac pacis are principally from the translations included in the Classics of international law series. In some cases, however, I have altered the translations for the sake of conceptual clarity. There is a new translation of the central passages of Elementa and De jure naturae et gentium (Samuel Pufendorf's Political Writings, ed. G.L.Carr, tr. M. Seidler, New York 1994), which appeared too late to be used in this study. In citing De officio hominis et civis, I have used the translation in the Cambridge texts in the history of political thought series (ed. James Tully, tr. Michael Silverthome, Cambridge 1991), while quotations from the essay De statu hominum naturali are from Samuel Pufendorf's "On the natural state" (ed. and tr. Michael Seidler, Lewiston 1990). - - Introduction For a long time Samuel Pufendorf (1632-1694) was regarded as a mere classic of modern jurisprudence and international law with little relevance for the understanding of the history of Western moral or political thought. In recent years this situation has, however, changed significantly, and there has appeared a number of studies dealing with Pufendorf.1 Behind this new interest in Pufendorf has been above all 1 Pufendorf is scarcely mentioned in George Sabine's A History of Political Thought and totally omitted from Alasdair Maclntyre's A Short History of Ethics. On the other hand, Pufendorf is one of the few authors to whom the recent 11 Cambridge History of Political Thought 1450-1700 devotes a separate article (Dufour 1991). Other monographs and articles in which Pufendorf appears as a significant figure include Stephen Buckle, Natural Law and the Theory of Property. Grotius to Hume. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1991: Horst Denzer, Moralphilosophie und Naturrecht bei Samuel Pufendorf. München 1972; Alfred Dufour,"La notion de loi dans 1'Ecole du Droit nature moderne. Etude sur le sens du mot loi chez Grotius, Hobbes et Pufendorf," Archives de Philosophie du Droit, 25, 1980; Simone Goyard-Fabre, "Pufendorf, adversair de Hobbes", Hobbes Studies 2, 1989; Istvan Hont, "The language of sociability and commerce: Samuel Pufendorf and the theoretical foundations of the "Four-Stages Theory" in The Languages of Political Theory in Early-Modern Europe, ed. Anthony Pagden, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1987; Leonard Krieger, The Politics of Discretion. Pufendorf and the Acceptance of Natural law. Chicago University Press. Chicago, 1965; Pierre Laurent, Pufendorf et la loi naturel. Vrin, Paris, 1982; Hans Medick, Naturzustand und Naturgesichte der bürgerlichen Geselschaft. Die Ursprünge der bürgerliche Sozialtheorie als Geschichts- philosophie und Sozialwissenschaft bei Samuel Pufendorf, John Locke und Adam Smith. Göttingen, 1981; Michael Nutkiewicz, "Samuel Pufendorf: Obligation as the Basis of the State", Journal of the History of Ideas 21, 1983; Fiametta Palladini, Discussioni seicentesche su Samuel Pufendorf scritti latini: 1663-1700. Bologna, 1978; Samuel Pufendorf, disceplo di Hobbes. Per una reinterpretazione del giusnaturalismo moderno. Bologna, 1990; Sieglinde Othmer, Berlin und dies Verbreaitung des Naturechts in Europa. Kultur und sozialgeschichtliche Studien zu Jean Barbeyracs Pufendorf-Ubersetzungen und eine analyse seiner Leserschaft. Veröffentlichungen der Historischen Komission zu Berlin beim Friedrich-Meinecke-Institut der Freien Universität Berlin, Band 30, Berlin, 1970; J.B. Schneewind, "Pufendorf's place in the history of ethics", Synthese, 72, 1987; Michael Seidler, Introduction in Samuel Pufendorfs "On the natural state". Lewiston, 1991; Richard Tuck Natural Rights Theories; Their Origin and Development. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1979; "The `Modem' School of Natural Law", in The Languages of Political Theory in Early-Modern Europe, ed. Anthony Pagden. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1987; James Tully, Introduction in Pufendorf: On the Duty of Man and Citizen. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1991; Hans Wetzel, Der Natrurrechtslehre Samuel Pufendorfs. Ein Beitragezur Ideengesichte des 17. und. 18. Jahrhunderts. Berlin, 1958. his important position in the transformation of European moral and political thinking which took place in the early modem period. Together with Hugo Grotius (1583-1645), Thomas Hobbes (1588- 1679), and John Locke (1632-1704), Pufendorf was the most prominent developer of the so-called modem theory of natural law and contractual political theory. Moreover, while he nowadays appears a minor figure in relation to Hobbes and Locke, from the 1670's to the second half of the eighteenth century he was by far the most widely read of the above mentioned writers. Pufendorf's massive main work, De jure naturae et gentium (On the laws of nature and nations, 1672), and its text-book version, De officio hominis et civis (On the duties of man and citizen, 1673) appeared in numerous editions and were translated into all major European languages. Knowledge of Pufendorf was regarded as an integral part of an all-round education, and while his views were seldom accepted as such, his theory was seen as a 12 paradigmatic example of a distinctively modem approach to moral and political issues. This work does not deal with the eighteenth-century reactions