Ebook: The politics of discretion : Pufendorf and the acceptance of natural law

History may be narrative, descriptive, interpretive, ana-
lytical, or significant. It usually exhibits these qualities in
combination. No single quality or combination of qualities is
inherently preferable to the others. The nature of the histori-
cal object and, even more, the kind of question asked of it
determine the type of history to be written. This book deals
in interpretation, analysis, and significance, not only because
these dimensions seem particularly appropriate to the history
of ideas, but also because each of them is a response to a
reason for undertaking the work.
A historical interpretation tells where an event (in its
broadest sense) came from. Since a chief purpose of this
book is the inquiry into the process of intellectual diffusion
through the examination of an intermediate stage in it, I
have tried to establish for each category of thought the rele-
vant ideas and circumstances available to the disseminator
and interpretive of his assumptions.
A historical analysis tells what the event was composed of.
Since a second purpose of the book is to gain an internal view
of natural-law political thinking through the examination of
a secondary interpreter whose mental processes are the more
penetrable for their lack of either flawless logic or leaps of
[vii] Preface
genius, I have presumed to take apart a complex of ideas in
order to determine in detail how they were fitted together.
Historical significance tells where the event went to or
toward. I have inquired along this line on two different
levels. First, I have asked the obvious question about the
converse effects of the ideas studied here upon the more
general currents in which they were spawned. Second, the
subject was chosen and its meaning plumbed-as the title
indicates-for its contribution to the solution of a perennial
problem, constant in Western history and relevant today. In
its broadest terms, this problem involves the tension inherent
in man's simultaneous commitment to logical coherence and
to a reality that splinters logical coherence, and it involves
further the adjustment which men make in their ideas to
resolve the tension. Because the problem is a continuing one
through various times and circumstances, the meaning for it
of the historical events here under consideration connects
history with fundamental human concerns that transcend
history and by the same token connects the history that is to
be understood with the historian who tries to do the under-
standing.
Seventeenth-century Europe is not a favored field of
American study. My acknowledgments, consequently, are
few, but all the more profoundly felt for that. I have dedi-
cated this book to my wife because she understands better
than anyone I know the inimitable truths that only the
structure of a crystal can deliver about the world at large, and
because she appreciates more than anyone I know the value
of writing about them. Hajo Holborn, ever my friend and
still my teacher, first indicated the figure of Pufendorf as a
provocative historical problem and then, with infinite pa-
tience and wisdom, abetted my efforts to solve it. Carl Briden-
baugh, Bernard Bailyn, and Daniel J. Boorstin graciously
[viii] Preface
entered into dialogues on the American dimension of Pufen-
dorf's influence, establishing a desirable communication be-
tween the traditional divisions of history.
To Yale University, the Center for Advanced Study in the
Behavioral Sciences, the Institute for Advanced Study, and
the University of Chicago go my thanks for underwriting the
release from academic duties which facilitated the prepara-
tion and completion of this work.
A note on the use of sources:
Pufendorf's three basic works on political theory-the
Elementorum jurisprudentiae universalis, the De jure na-
turae et genti-um, and the De officio hominis et civis-have
all had competent English translations (Oxford, 1931, 1934,
1927, respectively) . For the convenience of American read-
ers, all references to these works are to these translations save
in those particular cases where the translation does not
convey the precise political connotation. For each of these
cases I have specified the Latin edition used. Unless so
specified, the reference is to the English translation.