Montesquieu
Freedom survives only when power is divided – lawmaking, government and courts must be separate so they can check one another.
Placement
Separation of powers as the guarantor of liberty: executive, legislature and judiciary check one another.
Key ideas
- Separation of powers
- The Spirit of the Laws
Influence
Influenced by 2
Niccolò Machiavelli
influenced by
In Considerations on the Causes of the Greatness of the Romans (1734) Montesquieu shared Machiavelli’s thesis from the Discourses that internal dissensions helped preserve Roman liberty. Montesquieu, Considérations sur les causes de la grandeur des Romains et de leur décadence (1734); Dictionnaire Montesquieu (ENS Lyon), “Considérations sur les causes de la grandeur des Romains”
Evidence: AI draft
Niccolò Machiavelli › 1469–1527
John Locke
influenced by
Montesquieu’s account of the English constitution in The Spirit of the Laws (1748) is commonly read as recasting Locke’s legislative and executive powers into three separated powers. Montesquieu, De l’esprit des lois (1748), Book XI; J. Locke, Second Treatise of Government (1689); SEP “Montesquieu”
Evidence: also in InPhO · InPhO
John Locke › 1632–1704
Influenced 10
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
influenced
Rousseau accepted as ‘established by Montesquieu’ the principle that liberty, not being a fruit of every climate, is not within every people’s reach (Social Contract, 1762). J.-J. Rousseau, Du contrat social (1762), Book III; Montesquieu, De l’esprit des lois (1748); SEP “Jean Jacques Rousseau”
Evidence: also in InPhO · InPhO
Jean-Jacques Rousseau › 1712–1778
Adam Ferguson
influenced ✓
Ferguson’s Essay on the History of Civil Society (1767) builds on Montesquieu’s comparative politics; recalling Montesquieu, he was ‘at a loss’ why he should treat of human affairs. A. Ferguson, An Essay on the History of Civil Society (1767), ed. F. Oz-Salzberger (1995)
Evidence: also in Wikidata · Wikidata
Adam Ferguson › 1723–1816
Edmund Burke
influenced ✓
Closing An Appeal from the New to the Old Whigs (1791), Burke praised Montesquieu’s study of the English constitution as the work of a rare, wide-ranging genius. E. Burke, An Appeal from the New to the Old Whigs (1791); SEP “Edmund Burke”
Edmund Burke › 1729–1797
Cesare Beccaria
influenced ✓
Beccaria opened On Crimes and Punishments (1764) by invoking ‘the immortal President Montesquieu’ and built on his view that punishments beyond necessity are tyrannical. C. Beccaria, Dei delitti e delle pene (1764); letter to A. Morellet (1766); Montesquieu, De l’esprit des lois (1748)
Evidence: also in Wikidata · Wikidata
Cesare Beccaria › 1738–1794
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
influenced ✓
In the Philosophy of Right (1820) Hegel praised Montesquieu for treating laws not in isolation but as part of the whole character of a nation and its age. G. W. F. Hegel, Grundlinien der Philosophie des Rechts (1820), Introduction; SEP “Hegel’s Social and Political Philosophy”
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel › 1770–1831
Émile Durkheim
influenced ✓
In his Latin thesis (1892) Durkheim credited Montesquieu with seeing that social institutions form a system and vary with the type of society, a step towards social science. É. Durkheim, Quid Secundatus politicae scientiae instituendae contulerit (1892), in Montesquieu et Rousseau, précurseurs de la sociologie (1953); SEP “Montesquieu”
Émile Durkheim › 1858–1917
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John Millar
influenced
Millar’s Historical View of the English Government (1787/1803) says ‘the great Montesquieu pointed out the road’, calling him the Bacon and Smith the Newton of this science. J. Millar, An Historical View of the English Government (1787; 4 vols., 1803), Liberty Fund ed. (2006); J. Craig, Account of the Life and Writings of John Millar (1806)
Evidence: AI draft
John Millar › 1735–1801
Rifa’a al-Tahtawi
influenced
Al-Tahtawi reported that in Paris he read Montesquieu’s Spirit of the Laws with a tutor, and his account of French government with its translation of the charter of 1814 drew on this reading of law and constitution. R. al-Ṭahṭāwī, Takhlīṣ al-ibrīz (1834); tr. D. L. Newman, An Imam in Paris (2004)
Evidence: AI draft
Rifa’a al-Tahtawi › 1801–1873
Alexis de Tocqueville
influenced ✓
Like Montesquieu, Tocqueville explained a people’s laws through its mores and circumstances (Democracy in America, 1835–40); Raymond Aron placed both among the founders of sociology. A. de Tocqueville, De la démocratie en Amérique (1835–40); R. Aron, Les étapes de la pensée sociologique (1967)
Alexis de Tocqueville › 1805–1859
Yan Fu
influenced
Yan Fu translated The Spirit of the Laws as Fayi (1904–09), adding commentaries that compared Montesquieu’s typology of governments with Chinese institutions. Yan Fu, Fayi (1904–09); B. Schwartz, In Search of Wealth and Power: Yen Fu and the West (1964)
Evidence: AI draft
Yan Fu › 1854–1921
Criticism
Criticizes 2
Aristotle
criticised
Montesquieu faulted Aristotle for classifying monarchies not by the form of the constitution but by accidents such as the prince’s virtues or vices (De l’esprit des lois, 1748). Montesquieu, De l’esprit des lois (1748), XI.9 (“De la manière de penser d’Aristote”)
Evidence: AI draft
Aristotle › 384–322 BCE
Thomas Hobbes
criticised
Montesquieu held against Hobbes that humans in nature would be timid; peace is the first natural law, and war begins with society (Spirit of the Laws, 1748, I.2–3). Montesquieu, De l’esprit des lois (1748), I.2–3
Evidence: AI draft
Thomas Hobbes › 1588–1679
Works
Climate, customs, constitutions – and the separation of powers.
Position
Montesquieu asked why laws differ so widely between peoples and found the answer in their relationships to the form of government, climate, religion, trade, customs and geography – the “spirit” of a nation’s laws. He distinguished republics based on virtue, monarchies based on honour and despotisms based on fear. To protect liberty from despotism, power must check power: legislative, executive and judicial functions should be separated and balanced, as he believed they were in England. This doctrine of the separation of powers entered the American Constitution and the constitutions of modern democracies, and his comparative approach anticipated sociology.
Life & context
Charles-Louis de Secondat was born in 1689 at La Brède near Bordeaux and inherited both the title Baron de Montesquieu and a high office in the Bordeaux parliament. His satirical Persian Letters made him famous in 1721. He sold his office, travelled through Europe and spent nearly two years in England. After twenty years of work he published The Spirit of the Laws in 1748 and died in Paris in 1755.
Further main works
- Persian Letters (1721)
- Considerations on the Causes of the Greatness of the Romans and their Decline (1734)
Appears in
- Journey ‘How Sociology Emerged from Philosophy’ · Stop 3 of 12
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