Montesquieu's Natural Rights Constitutionalism

Abstract

When Woodrow Wilson, in the course of his campaign for the Presidency in 1912, attacked Thomas Jefferson and Charles-Louis de Secondat, baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu, he knew what he was about—for the constitutionalism articulated by the latter and embraced, in turn, by the Framers of the American Constitution was a systematic attempt to put into practice something very much like the first principles spelled out in the Declaration of Independence. Montesquieu was not a doctrinaire. He feared that, in his own country and elsewhere, revolution would eventuate in the establishment of a despotism, and so he gently, quietly promoted unobtrusive reform. But the cautious, prudential political science that he outlined in his Spirit of Laws was anything but value-free. If the American framers found his legislative science of use, it was because the hatred of despotism and love for liberty animating its author was grounded in an account of natural right closely akin to the one, espoused in John Locke’s Two Treatises of Government, that had inspired their revolution.

The intelligence concept and racial classification as sociological products of Western education

“…With these erratic beliefs about human activity, Locke incorporated the views of European theologians who had rationalized that Africans were condemned and put on earth to be servants for Europeans (Olsthoorn, 2019). Although Locke was anti-African or anti-Black, many Western educators would argue that learners of African descent must study racist Enlightenment thinkers like Montesquieu and Locke to understand sociological, sociopolitical principles and conditions of the modern world (Meszaros, 2017;Rahe, 2012;Samuel, 2009).…”

Liberal Constitutionalism and Political Particularism in Montesquieu’sThe Spirit of the Laws

“…But here, Larrère's distinction between a universel positif and a universel négatif: Montesquieu is a critic of the former but not the latter (Larrère 1999, 34-39). For two efforts to locate Montesquieu's thought in the modern natural rights tradition, within hailing distance of "Lockean universalism," see Zuckert (2004) and Rahe (2012). 7.…”

A Unique Ontology? Cooley's Notion of Communication and the Social

“…Indeed, Jacobs compares Cooley favorably to Montesquieu and Emerson as a contributor to literature and social philosophy. Yet, it is hard to link Cooley to Montesquieu's notions of separation of powers and natural law (Rahe ), and a standard work on Emerson's influence (Bakker ) does not mention Cooley at all. Surprisingly, Jacobs views Cooley as making a deeper contribution than Mead.…”