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Abstract
One of the leading political and economic German thinkers in the eighteenth century, Johann Heinrich Gottlob von Justi (1717–1771), transformed the cameral sciences into sciences of state (Staatswissenschaft) by giving them a foundation in natural law. The aim of this article is to show that the natural law of Justi was not, as has previously often been claimed, the anti-voluntarist, metaphysical and rational natural law of Christian Wolff. Quite the contrary: Justi was a follower of one of Wolff's most fervent opponents, Johann Jacob Schmauss (1690–1757), whose natural law was radically voluntaristic and anti-metaphysical. Justi's natural law must be seen as part of a larger transformation that took place in the natural law theories of the German Enlightenment. Building on the ideas of Johann Jacob Schmauss, Justi was part and parcel of the change from reason-based natural law into a theory that put the main emphasis on human instinct and passions as the source of moral action. These universal instincts were argued to be the foundation of natural rights, which as this article demonstrates, could be extended to entail human rights.
Notes
1. For an overview of natural law theory in the German Enlightenment, see CitationHaakonssen, Knud. “German natural law.” In The Cambridge History of Eighteenth-Century Political Thought, ed. M. Goldie and R. Wokler (Cambridge 2006), 251–90. On the Reception of Hobbes in Germany, CitationDreitzel, Horst. “The Reception of Hobbes in the Political Philosophy of the Early German Enlightenment.” History of European Ideas 29 (2003): 255–89. For a study where Pufendorf is interpreted as Hobbesian see CitationPalladini, “Pufendorf Disciple of Hobbes: The Nature of Man and the State of Nature: The Doctrine of Socialitas.”
2. See CitationAhnert. “Pleasure, Pain and Punishment in the Early Enlightenment: German and Scottish Debates,” 174.
3. Schmauss, Vorstellung des wahren Begriffs von einem Recht der Natur, 17. See also CitationScattola, “Das Naturrecht der Triebe, oder das Ende des Naturrechts: Johann Jakob Schmauß und Johann Christian Claproth,” 237. See also CitationGrunert, “Das Recht der Natur als Recht des Gefühls. Zur Naturrechtslehre von Johann Jacob Schmauss,” 140.
4. For Schmauss's biography see CitationFrensdorff, “Schmauß, Johann Jacob.”
5. CitationKorkman, “The Vital String of Mankind – Sociability and the Foundation of Natural Law and Universal Rights.” 6.
6. Haakonssen, “German Natural Law,” 252.
7. Quoted after Ahnert, “Pleasure, Pain,” 173.
8. Grunert, “Das Recht der Natur”, 137–138.
9. Feder, Johann Georg Heinrich. Grundriss der philosophischen Wissenschaften, 340. Coburg, 1769. Quoted after Dreitzel, “Reception,” 281, footnote 70.
10. Scattola, “Das Naturrecht”, 244.
11. Ahnert, “Problematische Bindungswirkung”, 48–54.
12. For an introduction to Justi's life and writings see Frensdorff, Über das Leben. For an introduction to Justi's political and economic thought Adam, The Political Economy.
13. CitationJusti, Natur und Wesen der Staaten als die Quelle aller Regierungswissenschaften und Gesetze, Bödeker, “Das Staatswissenschaftliche Fächersystem im 18. Jahrhundert.” 152.
14. For the latest example of several authors making this claim see CitationBackhaus, “From Wolff to Justi.” 11–14.
15. CitationBachmann, Die naturrechtliche Staatslehre Christian Wolffs, 32–51. Wolff's philosophical system is best described by his method that was called mathematical, geometrical, demonstrative, philosophic or scientific. Wolff and his scholars preferred to call their method mathematical. Wolff, who was originally a mathematician, basically wanted to make the chain of proofs the same way in politics as he had in mathematics by deriving truths deductively.
16. CitationDreitzel, “Justis Beitrag zur Politisierung der deutschen Aufklärung.” 161.
17. Justi established his fame in opposition to Wolff, when he won an essay competition organised by the Prussian academy with his essay Nichtigkeit und Ungrund der Monaden (1747), where he criticised Leibniz's and Christian Wolff's theory of monads.
18. CitationDreitzel, Absolutismus und ständische Verfassung in Deutschland: ein Beitrag zu Kontinuität und Diskontinuität der politischen Theorie in der frühen Neuzeit, 106.
19. Haakonssen, “German Natural Law,” 259.
20. Klippel, Politische Freiheit, 84–8. Dreitzel, “Absolutismus,” 106.
21. Schmauss, Vorstellungen, 10–11.
22. Scattola, “Das Naturrecht,” 239, 245–246.
23. CitationSchmauss, Vorstellungen, 3.
24. CitationSchmauss, Neues Systema des Rechts der Natur, 453.
25. Schmauss, Neus Systema des Rechts der Natur, 526.
26. Schmauss, Neues Systema, 454, 460.
27. Schmauss, Neues Systema, 512.
28. Schmauss, Neues Systema, 461.
29. CitationHochstrasser, Natural Law Theories in the early Enlightenment, 147–8.
30. Schmauss, Vorstellungen, 4.
31. Scattola, “Das Naturrecht,” 237, 241.
32. Grunert, “Das Recht der Natur,” 140.
33. Schmauss, Vorstellungen, 13–14.
34. Scattola, “Das Naturrecht,” 241.
35. Schmauss, Vorstellungen, 20–1.
36. Schmauss, Neues Systema, 462–3, 476.
37. Schmauss, Neues Systema, 528.
38. Schmauss, Neues Systema, 514–15.
39. [Anon.], M.N. Sendschreiben, 6–7.
40. Schmauss, Neues Systema, 526.
41. Schmauss, Neues Systema, 462–3.
42. Justi, Natur und Wesen, 149, 378–9.
43. Grunert, “Das Recht der Natur,” 149, footnote 47; Klippel, Politische Freiheit, 86.
44. Justi, Natur und Wesen, 382.
45. Justi, Natur und Wesen, 379.
46. Justi, Natur und Wesen, 381.
47. Justi, Natur und Wesen, 384.
48. Justi, Natur und Wesen, 384–5.
49. Justi, Natur und Wesen, 421.
50. Justi, Natur und Wesen, 423.
51. Justi, Natur und Wesen, 442–3.
52. Justi, Natur und Wesen, 381.
53. Justi, Natur und Wesen, 381, 443.
54. See especially Ahnert, “Pleasure, Pain,” 174, 180, 184.
55. Justi, Natur und Wesen, 430.
56. Justi, Natur und Wesen, 435.
57. Justi, Natur und Wesen, 443.
58. Justi, Natur und Wesen, 430.
59. Justi, Natur und Wesen, 408, 424.
60. Justi, Natur und Wesen, 598.
61. Justi, Natur und Wesen, 408–10.
62. CitationJusti, Grundriß einer guten Regierung, 44–5.