Patriarcha
Description
Robert Filmer is the greatest proponent of the divine right of kings the English-speaking world has ever produced. Writing in defence of the Stuart kings against an increasingly strident parliament, he shows by arguments from reason, history, and scripture that the sovereign is necessarily a king, whether in name or not.
But Filmer's importance is much broader than the question of sovereignty. His patriarchalism shows that legitimacy can only derive from earlier legitimacy and ultimately from the divine, offering a powerful counter-revolutionary philosophical framework with fatal implications for democracy and
constitutionalism. Small wonder that liberals felt it necessary to respond to him, and in the introduction to this volume, it is shown that his most famous critic-John Locke-never successfully refuted him.
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Content
- Intro
- Introduction
- Note on the Text
- Patriarcha
- or the Natural Power of KINGS.
- By the Learned Sir ROBERT FILMER Baronet.
- OBSERVATIONS UPON Mr. HUNTON'S Treatise of Monarchy:
- OR, THE ANARCHY Of a Limited or Mixed Monarchy.
- OBSERVATIONS ON Mr. HOBS's LEVIATHAN:
- OR, HIS ARTIFICIAL MAN A Commonwealth.
- OBSERVATIONS ON Mr. Milton Against SALMASIUS.
- OBSERVATIONS UPON H. Grotius DE JURE BELLI & PACIS.
- OBSERVATIONS UPON ARISTOTLE'S Politicks, TOUCHING Forms of Government.
- DIRECTIONS FOR Obedience to GOVERNMENT IN Dangerous or Doubtful Times.
- THE Free-holder's GRAND INQUEST Touching Our Sovereign Lord the King, and His Parliament.
- Sources and Editions
- Bibliography
