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May 15, 2024 · Montesquieu, French political philosopher whose principal work, The Spirit of Laws, was a major contribution to political theory. It inspired the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Constitution of the United States. Learn more about Montesquieu’s life and work.
- Robert Shackleton
Charles Louis de Secondat, Baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu (18 January 1689 – 10 February 1755), generally referred to as simply Montesquieu, was a French judge, man of letters, historian, and political philosopher.
Nov 17, 2023 · Montesquieu is a French political philosopher best known for championing liberty and a separation of powers between a government's executive, legislative, and judiciary. His views influenced the Founding Fathers of the United States.
- Mark Cartwright
Jul 18, 2003 · Montesquieu was one of the great political philosophers of the Enlightenment. Insatiably curious and mordantly funny, he constructed a naturalistic account of the various forms of government, and of the causes that made them what they were and that advanced or constrained their development.
Montesquieu’s masterpiece is one of the most influential studies in the history of political theory and jurisprudence. Montesquieu envisioned The Spirit of Laws as a major work of law and politics, and he applied himself accordingly to its composition.
- Robert Shackleton
Abandoning the classical divisions of his predecessors into monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy, Montesquieu produced his own analysis and assigned to each form of government an animating principle: the republic, based on virtue; the monarchy, based on honour; and despotism (see tyranny), based on fear.
May 23, 2018 · Learn about the life and work of Montesquieu, a pioneer of social and political theory and a precursor of sociology. Explore his concepts of the general spirit of a society, the types of government, and the determinants of historical causation.
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