El pensamiento político moderno: del Humanismo a la Ilustración

Introducción

• El pensamiento político moderno se originó en el siglo XVI con Maquiavelo, quien defendió la creación de un Estado moderno.
• This era saw the evolution of political beliefs linked to humanism and the Christian Reformation.
• These beliefs anticipated the absolutist model of the State, which became the main political doctrine and practice of the 17th century, defended by thinkers like Hobbes and Bossuet.
• Criticism of monarchical absolutism came from social movements like the Levellers and Jansenism and philosophical stances from Locke, Spinoza, and Leibniz.
• English liberalism, which promoted individualism, has its roots in the English revolutionary events of the 17th century.
• The political ideas of the Enlightenment, with representatives such as Montesquieu, Voltaire, and Rousseau, are also important.
• The change in modern political thought laid the groundwork for the contemporary world.

El Pensamiento Político en el Siglo XVI

La Teoría del Estado Moderno. Maquiavelo

• The clash between monarchy, nobility, and cities led to different political organizations.
  • Monarchies in Spain, Portugal, France, and England established a modern state.
  • Germany saw a division of central power among autonomous principalities due to the nobility's power.
  • Italy formed independent city-states due to the triumph of urban structures and oligarchies.
• The modern state adopted the form of an authoritarian monarchy supported by a bureaucracy, diplomacy, a standing army, and a treasury.
• The monarch embodied the political ideal expressed as "Rex est imperator in regno suo," strengthened by the bond between the crown and the common people.
• he term "State" began to be widely used to refer to the entire political apparatus because of new humanist and Renaissance ideas, developing alongside the concept of sovereignty.
• Sovereignty implies the indisputable authority of the ruler.
• Nicolás Maquiavelo (1469-1527) founded modern political thought and advocated for a modern state.
  • He described socio-political reality without ethical considerations.
  • Maquiavelo believed humans have limitless desires but must submit to order, which the state provides by offering security.
• In The Prince (1513), dedicated to Lorenzo II de Medici, Maquiavelo discusses how a Renaissance ruler should lead people to found a modern state, depending on political, economic, social, and cultural factors.
• Maquiavelo questions how to establish a modern state in Italy, suggesting the prince must possess political virtues:
  • Be skilled or favored by fortune.
  • Be strong, as it is better to be feared than loved.
  • Possess the ability to reconcile citizens.
• He advises distinguishing political virtues from moral virtues, as the latter can ruin the prince.
• The prince's priority is preserving the State, subordinating everything, including moral considerations, summarized in the phrase "the end justifies the means."
• This applies to both domestic and foreign policy, with international treaties valid only when benefiting the prince and his people.
• Maquiavelo's view on women is two-fold:
  • Some see him as excluding women from politics.
  • Others view him as a proto-constructivist, opening new ways of thinking about politics without gender bias.

La Teoría Política del Humanismo Cristiano

• Erasmus of Rotterdam and Thomas More were the most important theorists of Christian humanism in the 16th century.

La teoría política de Erasmo

• Erasmus of Rotterdam (1466-1536) focused on the renewal and critique of medieval institutions, advocating tolerance and pacifism.
• His ideas on political theory are a small part of his work and opposed those of Machiavelli.
• In Institutio Principis Christiani (1516), written for Charles I, Erasmus emphasizes that rulers should live austerely, cultivate learning, and reject violence, serving as models for their subjects.
• In Elogio de la locura (1511), he criticizes rulers' cruelties, opposes war and lies, and promotes Christian benevolence and wisdom.
• Erasmus advocated for controlling monarchs' power, favoring a mixed political model and electing rulers over hereditary succession.
• He rejected the idea of a universal monarchy and envisioned a Christian republic as a federation of independent states.
• Erasmus was a utopian, believing in justice aligned with Christian values.
• His work influenced the imperial politics of 16th-century Spain and became a reference in the "mirror of princes" literature.
• Erasmus advocated for equality between men and women, but this idea was not as influential as his political ideals. (Solana, 2020)
• His views were soon overshadowed by works like La perfecta casada (1583) by Fray Luis de León (1528-1591).

La teoría política de Moro

• Thomas More (1478-1535) was an English humanist and religious tolerance advocate.
• A friend of Henry VIII, he played a role in the English court by showing hostility to Lutheranism but was executed for not accepting the Church of England.
• His most important work, Utopia (1516), satirically describes life on a fictional island, criticizing 16th-century socio-political realities.
• He addresses issues like the excessive number of nobles and mendicant monks, viewing them as parasites.
• More saw the State as representing the interests of the dominant class (a pre-Marxist idea) and criticized private property and money as obstacles to justice and prosperity.
• He believed in equality between men and women, advocating for it throughout his life.
• He envisioned a socialist model where the State manages things and directs the economy, subordinating individual interests to the benefit of society.
• In Utopia, magistrates and priests are elected by universal suffrage; Utopians defend against foreign influence and spread their political ideas (similar to 19th-century Marxist theories).

Proyecciones del humanismo cristiano en España

• Christian humanism influenced Spain in the 16th century, sparking debate about the colonization of the Indies.
• Bartolomé de las Casas (1484-1566) and Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda (1490-1573) debated the legitimacy of Spanish expansion in America at the School of Salamanca.
• The debate, also involving Francisco de Vitoria, led to the Laws of Burgos (1512), recognizing the freedom of Indians, and the New Laws (1542), improving conditions for natives in Spanish America.
• Another result was theories about the imperial politics of Charles V.
• Mercurino Gattinara (1465-1530), chancellor of Charles V, Sepúlveda, and Juan Luis Vives (1493-1540) envisioned a universal monarchy (Universitas Cristiana).
• Francisco de Vitoria (1483-1546) rejected the universal monarchy and defended a world divided into independent states, considered the "father" of international law.
  • He supported the idea that Indians owned land and property, opposing Sepúlveda's view of them as inferior.

La Teoría Política de la Reforma

• The emergence of reformist ideas in the Catholic Church in the early 16th century led to the division of Christian unity in the West.
• The Protestant Reformation significantly impacted politics by reducing the Church's power and influence and fostering the separation of politics and religion, leading to the secular state model promoted by Luther.

Martín Lutero

• Martín Lutero (1483-1546) was an Augustinian monk and theology professor at the University of Wittenberg.
  • He emphasized the divine nature of authority and the separation of faith and law.
  • Luther believed the ruler's authority is divinely instituted, the spiritual power is above the temporal, and the two powers should be governed distinctly.
  • Lutheran doctrine defined “the two kingdoms": the spiritual, governed by the word, and the secular, governed by the sword, faith, and law.
  • Luther's thought, while religiously revolutionary, was politically conservative.
  • His doctrine was accepted by humanists and German nobles seeking liberation from imperial rule and Church assets.
  • He considered women inferior to men but acknowledged their ability to perform any task (Álvarez, 2017).

Juan Calvino

• Juan Calvino (1509-1564) based his doctrine on sola scriptura (the Bible) and predestination.
• In Christianae Religionis Institutio (1536), he echoed Lutheran ideas about the divine nature of power but recognized that political organization depends on human reason.

Las Grandes Construcciones Teóricas de Finales del XVI

• At the end of the 16th century, Jean Bodin, Johannes Althusius, and Francisco Suárez presented three major theoretical constructions in political philosophy.

Jean Bodin

• Jean Bodin (1530-1596), also called Bodino, was a French thinker and theorist of radical absolutism.
• In Los seis libros de la República (1576), he defends absolute monarchy as the best form of government but allows disobedience to a sovereign who acts against natural law.

Johannes Althusius

• Johannes Althusius (1563-1638) was a Westphalian jurist who defended federalism and popular sovereignty.
• His doctrine, based on Aristotelian principles, recognizes humans as social animals.
• His political organization model, inspired by the United Provinces, places the family and professional corporation at the base, with the city above, and the State as a federation of autonomous cities.

Francisco Suárez

• Francisco Suárez (1548-1617), a Jesuit from the School of Salamanca, presented a religious political theory.
• Like Althusius, he started from the Aristotelian conception of the social nature of humans.
• Suárez added that the State exists by the will of individuals, recognizing their right to choose their form of government.
• He opposed universal monarchy, advocating for independent states regulated by international law, as proposed by Francisco de Vitoria.

El Pensamiento Político y Religioso del Siglo XVII

• The 17th century in Europe was a time of crisis with economic recession, famine, social and political crises, peasant revolts, the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648).
• The Fronde in France (1648-1653), the execution of Charles I (1649) and the replacement of Jacobo II by William of Orange (1688) in England, the disorders in the Netherlands, and the secessionist movements of the Spanish Empire occurred.
• Religious crises like the Jansenism issue and the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685 also took place.
• The political philosophy of the era reflected instability and leaned towards absolutism.
• In the Hispanic monarchy, political philosophy was linked to Catholic tradition and history.
• In France, political treatises were written by politicians and monarch's ministers.
• The main political works were produced in England and the Netherlands.

Los Primeros Teóricos del Absolutismo Monárquico

• Monarchical absolutism defends monarchical sovereignty without institutional limits other than the sovereign's own will.
• It recognizes only the right of citizenship, subject to unconditional obedience to the king.
• This thinking originated from the Church's teachings of obedience and submission and the consolidation of European monarchies since the Late Middle Ages.
• The king transitioned from being a primus inter pares to an unquestionable superior.
• English political literature in the first half of the 16th century emphasized obedience and condemned rebellion against the monarch, as authority was divinely instituted.
• In France, after the Hundred Years' War, the monarchy received mystical prestige: the king, from the Capetian dynasty, received unction that made attacks on his life sacrilege.
• He was also believed to have the ability to heal the sick.
• The University of Toulouse produced thinkers who praised the monarchical figure throughout the 16th century.
• Jean Bodin developed his theories on monarchical absolutism with Cardinal Richelieu (1585-1642) and his circle of jurists.

Absolutismo Religioso

Jacques Bossuet

• Jacques Bossuet (1627-1704) was the most representative theorist defending the divine origin of power as justification for absolutism.
• He was the bishop of Meaux and appointed by Louis XIV as preceptor of the Dauphin of France.
• His masterpiece, Oraciones fúnebres, was presented between 1656 and 1687.
• He wrote Tratado del conocimiento de Dios y de uno mismo for the Dauphin, influenced by Cartesian philosophy.
• Bossuet represented orthodoxy against anything invalidating the authority of the king and the Church and favored religious peace, provided it was dominated by the French Catholic Church.
• His political theory can be summarized in two main points:
  • Monarchy is the most common, ancient, and natural form of government.
  • Royal authority is sacred and absolute.

Robert Filmer

• Robert Filmer (1588-1653) was an English writer and publicist and defender of absolute monarchy by divine right.
• He wrote Patriarca, also titled El poder natural de los reyes, in which defended the divine origin of monarchy, tracing the Stuarts' ancestry to Adam.

Absolutismo Laico y Radical

Thomas Hobbes

• Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) was a studious, solitary, and complex man.
• His work caused horror among absolutists because his idea of absolutism owed nothing to Christian faith or loyalty to the monarch.
• In Leviatán (1651), he was influenced by Machiavelli, viewing politics as a science that rejects the supernatural and defends political atheism.
• For Hobbes, the natural state of humans is anarchy: “Homo hominis lupus est,” denying the political and social nature that Aristotle attributed to humans.
• Hobbes asserts that individual sovereignty is ceded to the State through a contract, guaranteeing peace and security at the cost of individual freedom.
• His position is the origin of "contractualism": the idea that the origin of rulers' power lies in a contract with those they will govern.
• He defends that individuals reach full development in the most authoritarian State because it offers the best defense of their interests and happiness.
• Despite being considered a representative of absolutism, his work enunciates liberal modern thought concepts like individual freedom and rights, human equality, and popular legitimization of power.
• Hobbes believed men and women were equal.
• In Elementos de Derecho Natural y Político (1640), he questions patriarchal authority, and in De Cive (1642), he points out that men and women unite in such a way that there is no power of one over the other.

La Crítica al Absolutismo

Las Primeras Críticas del Siglo XVI

• Although Luther considered the origin of power divine, Lutheran princes created the League of Schmalkalden in 1531 to oppose Emperor Charles V.
• This act started doctrines seeking theoretical legitimization of rebellion.
• The two main anti-absolutist theories of the 16th century were those of the Monarchomachs and the Catholic anti-absolutist version.

Los monarcómanos

• The Monarchomachs were a group of French theorists against absolutism from Calvinist positions, including Hubert Languet (1518-1581) and Gaspar de Coligny (1519-1572).
• They possibly authored the libel Vindiciae contra tyrannos (1579).
• The Monarchomachs assumed that magistrates were created by the people and sought to reconcile sovereignty with the monarch's obedience to the State's fundamental laws.
• Their ideas foreshadowed the theory of the contract as the origin of society between the king and subjects but justified it in biblical origin.

La versión católica anti absolutista

• The Catholic anti-absolutist version resulted from the Counter-Reformation at the Council of Trent (1545-1563), enabling Jesuit doctrines against the monarch's absolute power.
• Juan de Mariana (1536-1624) highlighted the limits of monarchy and openly defended tyrannicide in his work, Del Rey y de la Institución Real (1599).
• He argued the king should submit to laws and morals like any other vassal and that revolutions and the execution of the monarch by the people could be justified if the king behaved like a tyrant.

La Crítica Francesa: El Jansenismo y Fénelon

• In France, Jansenism and Fénelon's aristocratic opposition opposed absolutism.

La oposición jansenista

• The Jansenist opposition, led by Cornelio Jansen (1585-1638), was contrary to the absolutism of Louis XIV.
• The king acted against them and dispersed the Jansenists.

La oposición aristocrática

• The aristocratic opposition, led by François Fénelon (1651-1715), opposed capitalist production and criticized the absolutist drift of Louis XIV's monarchy.
• Fénelon advocated agriculture and defended the interests of the landowning aristocracy.

La Crítica Inglesa: Empirismo y Pragmatismo

• In England, criticism of absolutism materialized in the ideas of the Levellers and Diggers, in John Locke's empiricism, and in Halifax's pragmatism.

Los levellers

• The Levellers were a Protestant sect led by John Lilburne (1614-1657) who proposed equality in the political and religious spheres.
• They believed government existed only by popular consent, and political rights resided in having been born.
• Their actions paved the way for later social revolutions in Europe.

Los diggers

• The Diggers were a Christian faction created in 1649 by Gerrard Winstanley (1609-1676) who fought in the English Civil War.
• They advocated for a social system based on the common ownership of land, where products would be distributed based on needs.
• They were early advocates of universal suffrage.
• Despite their limited impact at the time, they foreshadowed communist ideals.

John Locke

• John Locke (1632-1704) developed a different work from that of Hobbes.
• Considered the "father" of liberal individualism; he defended the interests of the bourgeoisie.
• His Tratado sobre el gobierno civil (1689) summarizes his political thought.
• Locke believed in a natural order where governments should not intervene in economic affairs but guarantee property rights and freedom.
• He criticized absolutism and justified the people's right to rebel in certain cases.
• His work influenced the 18th century, both in England and abroad.

George Savile

• George Savile, Marquis of Halifax (1633-1695), was a statesman who distrusted political ideologies and believed in governing based on the circumstances of each moment.

La Crítica Filosófica de Spinoza y Leibniz

Baruch Spinoza

• Baruch Spinoza (1632-1677) was a Dutch philosopher and advocate for freedom of thought.
• His work shows the influence of Hobbes, though with nuances.
• His political theory was outlined in Tractatus theologicus politicus (1670) and Tractatus politicus, asserting that humans tend to associate seeking their benefit.
• Spinoza proposed a society led by reason and laws determined by the community to regulate society and limit the power of the State.
• He believed the ruler could be deposed if they exceeded established limits.
• For Spinoza, democracy aligns with individual freedom; each individual has the right to think and express their thoughts freely.

Gottfried Leibniz

• Gottfried Leibniz (1646-1716) was a German philosopher, scientist, and jurist known for his contributions in various fields.
• His writings contain references to politics.
• Leibniz envisioned a universe created to improve itself and find balance, leading to a morality that seeks harmony among all beings, especially humans.

El Pensamiento Liberal Anglosajón

• The roots of English liberalism lie in the Puritan revolution of the 17th century and Cromwell's Commonwealth.
• The achievements diminished with the restoration of Charles II in 1660 but led to a new peaceful revolution in 1688.
• England and Scotland established a parliamentary monarchy.
• Figures such as David Hume, Adam Smith, and David Ricardo emerged.

David Hume

• David Hume (1711-1776) was influenced by George Berkeley (1685-1753) and developed Locke's theories.
• Hume emphasized the importance of sensible and empirical experience in human knowledge.
• He questioned the nature of the State and the social contract under empiricist assumptions, leading him to defend individualism.
• He saw society as a place where people gather to satisfy their needs.

Adam Smith

• Adam Smith (1723-1790) was a Scottish economist, founder of economic science and the classical school of economics.
• He argued that a country's wealth originates in labor, which is more effective through division and specialization.
• Smith advocated for freedom of commerce through a free trade policy, stating that egoism and individual interest are necessary for the progress of humanity.
• Governments should not intervene in economic affairs but guarantee property rights and liberty.

David Ricardo

• David Ricardo (1772-1823) was an English economist and member of the classical school of economics.
• His work outlines principles such as the criticism of capital accumulation and the proposed prohibition of the Corn Laws.

La Ilustración

• The Enlightenment was a cultural movement in 18th-century Europe that contributed ideas to the final stage of the Ancien Régime and framed the start of the Edad Contemporánea (Blanning, 2002).
• The Age of Enlightenment contributed to developing ideas and concepts such as freedom, progress, and man, all from the perspective of