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Natural Law and Natural Rights in Early Enlightenment Copenhagen

Jensen, Mads Langballe LU (2019) p.94-124
Abstract
This chapter discusses the earliest teaching of post-grotian natural law by Henrik Weghorst and Christian Reitzer in Copenhagen in the decades around 1700. This teaching has often been presented as merely derivative of the ideas of Hugo Grotius or Samuel Pufendorf. In contrast, this chapter argues that Weghorst and Reitzer developed two very different, and antagonistic, forms of natural law, reflecting academic teaching in Kiel and in Halle. However, it also shows how Weghorst and Reitzer illustrate the common ground of much Lutheran natural law theorising in the later seventeenth and early eighteenth century. Thus, for all their differences, both gave primacy to natural law and focused on duties, rather than rights, as constitutive of... (More)
This chapter discusses the earliest teaching of post-grotian natural law by Henrik Weghorst and Christian Reitzer in Copenhagen in the decades around 1700. This teaching has often been presented as merely derivative of the ideas of Hugo Grotius or Samuel Pufendorf. In contrast, this chapter argues that Weghorst and Reitzer developed two very different, and antagonistic, forms of natural law, reflecting academic teaching in Kiel and in Halle. However, it also shows how Weghorst and Reitzer illustrate the common ground of much Lutheran natural law theorising in the later seventeenth and early eighteenth century. Thus, for all their differences, both gave primacy to natural law and focused on duties, rather than rights, as constitutive of social and political life. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
publishing date
type
Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding
publication status
published
subject
host publication
Philosophy, Rights and Natural Law : Essays in Honour of Knud Haakonssen - Essays in Honour of Knud Haakonssen
pages
94 - 124
publisher
Edinburgh University Press
ISBN
9781474449229
9781474460200
DOI
10.3366/edinburgh/9781474449229.003.0005
language
English
LU publication?
no
id
a8514987-cac2-40b9-830a-32251c43323e
date added to LUP
2023-11-01 09:50:03
date last changed
2023-11-06 08:50:26
@inbook{a8514987-cac2-40b9-830a-32251c43323e,
  abstract     = {{This chapter discusses the earliest teaching of post-grotian natural law by Henrik Weghorst and Christian Reitzer in Copenhagen in the decades around 1700. This teaching has often been presented as merely derivative of the ideas of Hugo Grotius or Samuel Pufendorf. In contrast, this chapter argues that Weghorst and Reitzer developed two very different, and antagonistic, forms of natural law, reflecting academic teaching in Kiel and in Halle. However, it also shows how Weghorst and Reitzer illustrate the common ground of much Lutheran natural law theorising in the later seventeenth and early eighteenth century. Thus, for all their differences, both gave primacy to natural law and focused on duties, rather than rights, as constitutive of social and political life.}},
  author       = {{Jensen, Mads Langballe}},
  booktitle    = {{Philosophy, Rights and Natural Law : Essays in Honour of Knud Haakonssen}},
  isbn         = {{9781474449229}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{09}},
  pages        = {{94--124}},
  publisher    = {{Edinburgh University Press}},
  title        = {{Natural Law and Natural Rights in Early Enlightenment Copenhagen}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.3366/edinburgh/9781474449229.003.0005}},
  doi          = {{10.3366/edinburgh/9781474449229.003.0005}},
  year         = {{2019}},
}