Sources of Modern Natural Law in Hugo Grotius’s Political Philosophy

Marcin Mazurek

The article aims to show the sources of modern legal-natural discourse in Hugo Grotius’s political philosophy of. The text shows an attempt, fundamental for Grotius’s thought, to address the change of problem fi eld in modern practical philosophy. It consists in shifting the burden of legal and political thought from the issue of power-exercising mechanisms to the problem of its legitimization, with a simultaneous, extensive reconstruction of the concept of human nature in its volitional and intellectual dimension. The thesis organizing the undertaken considerations is that in Grotius’s legal and political thought, the main problems of modern practical philosophy are focused as if in a lens, but at the same time this thought designates basic directions of modern research on human nature in their multifaceted connection with the issues of the sources and essence of social and political order.

DOI: 10.37240/AHFiMS.2020.65.4

65-mmazurek

Keywords: natural law · eternal law · nature · legal order · morality · social life