Family in Early Modern Philosophy

The aim of this article is to shed light on the successive transformations undergone by the notion of family, from its hierarchical and authoritarian organisation in the Ancien Regime to its more egalitarian, flexible and contractually-based contemporary version. I will dwell on four key authors of the modern natural law tradition - Grotius, Hobbes, Locke and Kant -, and selectively focus on some arguments which mark the decisive stages in the extensive theoretical reconfiguration of family in Europe since the 17th century. This novel notion of family is based on increasingly equal terms for spouses, a more affective relationship between parents and their offspring, and a critical shift in the conception of children: no longer indebted and obligated towards their parents, they are gradually viewed as individuals entitled to claim protection, care and education as means to prepare them for their eventual condition of liberty

Authoritarianism · Stoicism · Historical Philosophy and Science · Political Philosophy and Ethics · Seventeenth-Century Political and Philosophical Thought