Simple esteem and the method of commonplaces in Pufendorf

Bibliographic Data

ID21597987
AuthorsAndreas Blank (0000-0002-7470-097X, University of Klagenfurt, corresponding author)
Year2025
Volume33
Issue5
Pages1070-1091
Publication date2025-09-03
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueBritish Journal for the History of Philosophy (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0960-8788 • E-ISSN: 1469-3526
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/09608788.2024.2392683
OpenAlexW4402633899
LanguageEN
References cited16

In his discussion of simple esteem—one of the moral entities meant to regulate human actions—Pufendorf invokes a juridical commonplace: the rule that, before evidence to the contrary, we should presume others to be good. This argumentative strategy is an illuminating example for understanding his method of commonplaces. The present paper has three goals: (1) to analyze how Pufendorf adopted from legal humanism the view that presumptions should be based on considerations of what comes about most easily in nature; (2) to show that Pufendorf’s inclusion of ethical aspects in the juridical presumption of goodness is an application of this view of forming presumptions; (3) to argue that Pufendorf did not regard juridical and philosophical commonplaces as expressions of a particular stage of intellectual history but rather as the result of reflection about human needs and abilities

Epistemology · Historical Economic and Legal Thought · Historical Legal Studies and Society · Philosophy · Reformation and Early Modern Christianity

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