Abstract
dc:description.abstractIn recent decades, John Selden’s reputation has often been coloured by Johann P. Sommerville’s 1984 judgement that his skill as an antiquary was such, ‘[t]hat his work as a political theorist was indifferent and unoriginal should not detract in the least from his reputation.’ Studies have therefore often neglected the theoretical aspects of Selden’s politics – instead focusing on his role in active politics, or on his skill as a scholar. That his philosophical contributions were unequal to those of his more illustrious contemporaries, Hugo Grotius and Thomas Hobbes, has led modern historians to disregard the influence of his theory of politics on both his practical and contemplative interests. It is the aim of the present thesis to remedy this neglect. It will not argue that Selden’s theory of politics was more innovative than has previously been thought; nor that his conception of natural law deserves reassessment. What it will suggest is that Selden’s life and work as an historian was far more politically motivated than is currently understood. The thesis will be made up of two parts. The first part will argue that Selden’s theory of politics was quite different to those of many of his contemporaries; that his reading of Aristotle’s Politics prioritised books IV-VI far more than had been typical; and that he treated law as a far more contingent and historical subject than the likes of Grotius or the lawyer Edward Coke. What were matters of mere historical curiosity for many, therefore, were of vital political importance to Selden. Part two will explore how this peculiar political outlook produced a peculiar form of political argument; how a number of his apparently antiquarian works were in fact polemical; and how his natural jurisprudence was ultimately contrived in service of these practical political concerns.
Degree
thesis:*- Name dc:type.qualificationname
- Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
- Level dc:type.qualificationlevel
- Doctoral
- Grantor dc:publisher.institution
- University of Cambridge
- Year dc:date.issued
- 2024
Author and committee
dc:creator, dc:contributor.*- Author dc:creator
-
- Liber, Felix
- Advisor dc:contributor.advisor
-
- Mandelbrote, Scott
Subjects
dc:subject × 14Rights
dc:rightsIdentifiers
dc:identifier.*- DOI dc:identifier.doi
- https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.115774
- OAI identifier oai:identifier
- oai:www.repository.cam.ac.uk:1810/379804