GUIDE TO THE PHILOSOPHY 1938 - 1947.pdf - Rare Books at ...

CHAPTER XIV: SOVEREIGNTY,
LIBERTY AND NATURAL
RIGHTS
The views of Hobbes, Locke and Rousseau have an im-
portance in the history of political theory which justifies
detailed summary. This cannot be said of subsequent
political thinkers, with the exception of Marx and possibly
of J. S. Mill. I shall, then) from this point adopt a different
mode of treatment and select subjects rather than thinkers
for exposition. The Social Contract Theory outlined in
the last chapter formulated a number of questions which
provided the framework for discussions of political theory
during the ensuing hundred and fifty years. Of these, three
are of outstanding importance: the theory of Sovereignty,
the principle of liberty, and the doctrine of Natural Rights.
All three are related, and in this chapter I shall try to
summarize the more important views which have been
held in regard to them.
I. SOVEREIGNTY
Nature of Questions Discussed. The theory of Sover-
eignty, as it is called, has played an important part in the
history of political theory, and, although the discussions
to which
necessary
it has given rise seem academic now, it is
to discussion.
give some account of the matters under
The conception of Sovereignty was originally introduced
into political theory by the French thinker Bodin (1530-
1596). The question which interested him was primarily
one of fact. In every form of government, whatever its
nature; there must, he pointed out, be some ultimate
repository of power, some authority which is the source