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The Six Books of the Republic of J. Bodin and the absolute monarchy

  • Korean Review of French History
  • Abbr : KRFH
  • 2005, (13), pp.133~159
  • Publisher : KOREAN SOCIETY FOR FRENCH HISTORY
  • Research Area : Humanities > History

LIM Seung Hwi 1

1선문대학교

Candidate

ABSTRACT

Jean Bodin, the author of the great book in the history of the political ideas, has been always considered as an absolutist before the letter, because of his new political concepts. This study intends to question, by analyzing Jean Bodin’s work, Six Books of the Republic, that the so-called inventor of the modern notion of sovereignty could be an real absolutist. In the new concepts of the State and the sovereignty, formed by Bodin, it is certain that there is no place for the religion and the religious origin of the political power. The sovereignty in Bodin’s work is characterized by the humanity and the secular dimension. It has nothing to do with the divine dimension of the political power, essential for the theory of the absolute monarchy, and it would rather be in opposition. Certainly, Bodin’s concept of sovereignty had great effect on writers for the absolute monarchy. But there is no reason that Bodin himcelf should be presumed as an admirer of the absolute monarchy, an absolutist.

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