The foundations of political individualism, which we noted above in the doctrines of natural law, are not alien to the Vimsk statists of the 17th century. But they do not receive proper development and application without a clear and defined distinction between morality and law, and on the other hand, under the influence of medieval views on the confusion of the areas of private and public law, which distinguished the political judges of Hugo Groszcz.
And therefore, the fate of philosophical and legal constructions among German writers of this era is extremely curious. Glimpses of individualism, and, consequently, the protection of freedom of thought, speech, religious freedom, a liberal attitude towards theological sciences caused severe attacks by Old Testament German scientists, Protestant scholastics and, therefore, their repressive measures on the part of the sovereigns themselves against representatives of the awakening legal German thought. On the other hand, commitment to the old. the forms presented in the Middle Ages on the content of theories, all this on the basis of doctrinaire moralization, make the same works terribly tedious for the historian and completely inaccessible to the average reader.
[fragment illegible in the scan of the first edition]
But if the historian does not find in them almost anything fundamentally new and little original, in the sense of a combination of thoughts, interpretation and development of what was perceived, then it is still impossible to pass by them in silence. Otherwise, the explosion of legal individualism as a protest will not be understandable. against the patrimonial and moral guardianship of enlightened absolutism, which found enough motives for itself in the writings of Puendorea, Tomazl, Voliea, Achenwall (1719-1772). They could be considered advanced thinkers') for the German, burgher and monarchical-patrarchal environment in which they had to write and act. In particular, the academic philosopher Christana Volie popularized the doctrine of natural law *).
For our immediate subject of study, it is extremely characteristic that, despite neither the favorable environment nor the ancient traditions, the individualistic premises of the Hobbesian doctrine, which had a significant impact on the Germans, are used by them more to undermine absolutism than the English thinker to strengthen it. Neither Pueendore, nor Thomasia, nor even Vollier are inclined to completely deny them, but they also do not consistently implement them in political constructs.
Hobbes's frank and even cynical absolutism, born, justified and existing by the principle of fear, supported by force, is also tempered by German writers with the help of ethical principles. Even according to them, the state does not only want to rule, to bring order at any cost, it strives for the well-being and happiness of its subjects, for their moral success. The prospect of Plato's polity - the state, the educational home - opens up before us again.
1) Compared with the compendium of Alberti, the Christian state, Seckendorf and even the writings of the Coccei, father and son.
) r Ts
[fragment illegible in the scan of the first edition]
To what extent, however, writers have assimilated the doctrine of natural law with its consequences for the individual and the state can be seen from the following. Puendor recognizes the universal significance of natural law for the entire human race. By this, he places the right independently of the theological tutelage of any positive religion and afterlife. Church censorship should not serve as an obstacle to philosophical and legal research. The logical conclusion from the premises he accepted was to recognize natural law for people, as opposed to and limit traditional and positive rights, if the latter did not contradict the first and represented an abnormality. The arbitrariness of absolutism would be set limits to natural law and justification. them freedom - a necessary condition for the existence of people' and in a political union - which was considered the result of human agreement.
What do we see, not only in Pueendorea, but in Tomaz, Volie, not to mention the theocratically and teleologically inclined Leibniz (who previously connected religion, law, morality) and the rest of the “aistotez” of German thought?
We really want to recognize religious freedom. He rebelled against the persecuted heresy and witchcraft. He denies spiritual censorship in philosophical research, but in order to transfer it into the hands of the state, that is, to any disagreement with the state. the spirit produced the thought of allowing the government to put its own money.