Natural Law and Laws of Nature in Early Modern Europe: Jurisprudence Theology Moral and Natural Philosophy »

This impressive volume is the first attempt to look at the intertwined histories of natural law and the laws of nature in early modern Europe. It will stimulate new debate in the areas of intellectual history and the history of philosophy, as well as the natural and human sciences in general.

This impressive volume is the first attempt to look at the intertwined histories of natural law and the laws of nature in early modern Europe. These notions became central to jurisprudence and natural philosophy in the seventeenth century; the debates that informed developments in those fields drew heavily on theology and moral philosophy, and vice versa. Historians of science, law, philosophy, and theology from Europe and North America here come together to address these central themes and to consider the question; was the emergence of natural law both in European jurisprudence and natural philosophy merely a coincidence, or did these disciplinary traditions develop within a common conceptual matrix, in which theological, philosophical, and political arguments converged to make the analogy between legal and natural orders compelling. This book will stimulate new debate in the areas of intellectual history and the history of philosophy, as well as the natural and human sciences in general.

Preface
Introduction: Nature, law, and natural law in early modern Europe, Lorraine Daston and Michael Stolleis
From limits to laws: the transformation of ancient atomism in early modern philosophy, Catherine Wilson
Expressing nature's regularities and their determinations in the late Renaissance, Ian Maclean
The legitimation of law through God, tradition, will, nature and constitution, Michael Stolleis
The concept of (natural) law in the doctrine of law and natural law of the early modern era, Jan Schröder
'Lex certa' and 'ius certum': the search for legal certainty and security, Heinz Mohnhaupt
Crimen contra naturam, Andreas Roth
Nature's regularity in some Protestant natural philosophy textbooks 1530-1630, Sachiko Kusukawa
Natural order and divine salvation: Protestant conceptions in early modern Germany (1550-1750), Anne-Charlott Trepp
Natural law and celestial regularities from Copernicus to Kepler, Gerd Grasshof
The approach to a physical concept of law in the early modern period: a comparison between Matthias Bernegger and Richard Cumberland, Hubert Treiber
Leibniz's concept of jus naturale and lex naturalis - defined 'with geometric certainty', Klaus Luig
Controversies on nature as universal legality (1680-1710), Sophie Roux
From principles to regularities: tracing 'laws of nature' in early modern France and England, Friedrich Steinle
Unruly weather: natural law confronts natural variability, Lorraine Daston
In search of the Newton of the moral world, Cathérine Larrère
Deus legislator, Jean-Robert Armogathe
Bibliography
Index