Jean Bodin: Biography and Contributions

Jean Bodin He was a French jurist, philosopher, politician, historian and economist. To a large extent, his reputation as a scholar is based on the explanation of the sovereignty he formulated in The six books of the Republic. In addition, he was one of the most notable intellectual figures from the sixteenth century.

The exhibition that he made in his works of the principles of what a stable government should be was very influential in Europe. Bodin lived in a moment of great turmoil, when France was being devastated by religious wars. He was convinced that peace would be restored if the sovereign prince received the absolute power of the State.

Biography of Jean Bodin

He was one of the first men to oppose slavery. In addition, he sought to reform the judicial system of France and formulated one of the first versions of the quantitative theory of money. In his works a wide variety of topics are discussed; among these we can mention natural philosophy, religion, education, political economy and historical methodology.

Index

  • 1 Biography
    • 1.1 Origin
    • 1.2 Academic activity
    • 1.3 Literary and professional activity
  • 2 Concept of sovereignty and absolutism
    • 2.1 Concept of sovereignty
    • 2.2 Concept of absolutism
  • 3 Jean Bodin's Contributions
    • 3.1 Method for easy understanding of history
    • 3.2 The six books of the Republic
    • 3.3 Economic Thought of Bodin
    • 3.4 Writings about religion
    • 3.5 Works on witchcraft
  • 4 References

Biography

Origin

According to historical documents, Jean Bodin was born in 1529 or 1530 in Angers, in western France. His father was Guillaume Bodin, a wealthy merchant and a member of the Angers bourgeoisie.

Very little is known of his mother, beyond whose name was Catherine Dutertre and who died before the year 1561. He was the youngest of seven children, of which four were girls.

Academic activity

Bodin joined the Carmelite brotherhood when he was very young, but resigned his vows a few years later. In 1551 Bodin went to the University of Toulouse to study civil law. In that university he graduated and remained as professor until 1561.

Then, he abandoned the teaching of the law and went to Paris. During all that decade he dedicated himself to work as a defender in the parliament of Paris.

Literary and professional activity

Along with his work as a lawyer, Bodin published in 1566 his first important work, the Method for easy understanding of history ( Methodus ad facilem historiarum cognitionem ). That same year his father died.

From that year began an intense literary and professional activity. Among the fruits of this intense activity we can highlight the publication of The six books of the Republic (1576).

Bodin was appointed commissioner for the reform of forest tenure in Normandy (1570) and attorney general of Laon (1587), and subsequently published The theater of nature ( Universae naturae theatrum ) (1596).

With the appointment of attorney general, he settled in Laon (France) from 1584. There he lived for the next 12 years. In the year 1596 Jean Bodin died a victim of the plague when he was still practicing as a procurator. He was dismissed with a Catholic burial in the Franciscan church of Laon.

Concept of sovereignty and absolutism

Concept of sovereignty

According to Jean Bodin, sovereignty was an obligation beyond human law, and was subject only to divine or natural law. For Bodin, sovereignty was de fi ned in terms of absolute, perpetual, inalienable and indivisible power.

The sovereignty conferred legitimacy to the State against powers like those of the papacy and the Empire. He also did it in front of other powers that could coexist within the same territory.

In the same way, sovereignty was exercised only in the public sphere, not in the private sphere. This did not expire with the death of the person who had it, because it was not owned by any individual.

Concept of absolutism

In his work, Jean Bodin expounded the classical interpretation of absolute power. According to him, was the power exercised by the monarch without the subjects could put limits. This conception united in the figure of the king the conditions of supreme judge and legislator.

This political doctrine and form of government had as its main objective the total control of the State.

Likewise, he sought to eliminate the contrasting alternative powers with the ruler. According to this concept, the king personified sovereignty by divine right; this became known as monarchical absolutism.

Jean Bodin's Contributions

The contributions of Jean Bodin over more than 30 years of literary production can be summarized in the following aspects:

Method for easy understanding of history

He Methodus ad facilem historiarum cognitionem of Bodin (Method for the easy comprehension of history) was first published in 1566 and revised in 1572. It is Bodin's first important work.

With this text Bodin wanted to demonstrate that the principles of politics were in the study of the history of law.

The six books of the Republic

It was his most outstanding contribution in the field of political philosophy. It was published for the first time in 1576 and p The translations into other languages ​​followed.

Thus, the work had translations into Italian (1588), Spanish (1590), German (1592) and English (1606).

This work is considered as the response of Jean Bodin to the political crisis generated by the religious wars that took place between 1562 and 1598. This was the most important crisis in France during the sixteenth century.

Economic Thought of Bodin

This thought was expressed in Response to the paradoxes of Malestroit (1568) and, then, in a second revised version and published in 1578.

Experts assure that in this work Bodin gave one of the first formulations of the quantitative theory of money in this one.

Writings about religion

Jean Bodin's main contributions to religion were his works Demonomania, colloquium heptaplomeres Y Universae naturae theatrum .

These writings were his response to the warlike religious climate in France in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In these texts the topic of what was the true religion was addressed ( vera religio ).

Works on witchcraft

In his work In the demonic witches' mania ( Of the démonomanie des sorciers , 1580), Jean Bodin asserts that demonism, along with atheism, was treason to God.

Consequently, any attempt to manipulate the demonic forces through witchcraft or natural magic should be punished.

This work had translations into Latin (1581), German (1581) and Italian (1587). Because it was widely distributed, some historians blamed her for the prosecutions of witches during the years following its publication.

References

  1. Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. (2013, July 02). Jean Bodin. Taken from britannica.com
  2. Harvard University. (s / f). Biography of Bodin. Taken from projects.iq.harvard.edu.
  3. Lindfors, T. (s / f). Jean Bodin (c.1529-1596). Taken from iep.utm.edu.
  4. New World Encyclopedia Contributors. (2016, August 22). Jean Bodin. Taken from newworldencyclopedia.org.
  5. D'Aquino, M and Contino, R. (2000). Changes and continuities: a look at the multiple contemporary historical processes. Buenos Aires: Editions of the Sign.
  6. González Schmal, R. (2007). Constitutional Law Program. Mexico City: Limusa.
  7. Turchetti, M. (2017). Jean Bodin. In Edward N. Zalta (editor), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Taken from plato.stanford.edu.


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