Defining the common good : empire, religion and philosophy in eighteenth-century Britain
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
Defining the common good : empire, religion and philosophy in eighteenth-century Britain
（Ideas in context / edited by Quentin Skinner (general editor) ... [et al.], 29）
Cambridge University Press, 2004
- : pbk
Available at 5 libraries
Note
"First paperback edition 2004"--T.p. verso
Includes bibliographical references (p. 422-462) and index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
The theme of this book is the crisis of the early modern state in eighteenth-century Britain. The revolt of the North American colonies and the simultaneous demand for wider religious toleration at home challenged the principles of sovereignty and obligation that underpinned arguments about the character of the state. These were expressed in terms of the 'common good', 'necessity', and 'community' - concepts that came to the fore in early modern European political thought and which gave expression to the problem of defining legitimate authority in a period of increasing consciousness of state power. The Americans and their British supporters argued that individuals ought to determine the common good of the community. A new theory of representation and freedom of thought defines the cutting edge of this revolutionary redefinition of the basic relationship between individual and community.
Table of Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- 1. The figure of Cicero
- 2. A classical landscape
- 3. State and empire
- 4. The limits of sovereignty and obligation
- 5. The common good, toleration and freedom of thought
- 6. 'Alternatives' to the common good 1774-1776
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index.
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