The Whole Duty of Man, According to the Law of Nature

Chap. 5. The Impulsive Cause of Constituting Communities, p. 187

according to the law of nature 187 own, there can be no Pretence that they should be otherwise dealt withal, than as if they were in the Condition of perpetual hired Servants . u c h a p t e r v u The Impulsive Cause of Constituting Communities18 Altho’ there be hardly any Delight or Advantage, but what may be obtain ’d from those Duties, of which we have already discours’d; it remains , nevertheless, that we inquire into the Reasons, why Men, not contenting themselves with those primitive and small Societies, have founded such as are more ample, call’d Communities.19 For from these Grounds and Foundations is to be deduced the Reason of those Duties, which merely relate to the Civil State of Mankind. Here, therefore, it suffices not to say, That Man is by Nature inclin’d to Civil Society, so as he neither can nor will live without it.20 For since, indeed, it is evident, that Man is such a Kind of Creature, as has a most tender Affection for himself and his own Good; it is manifest, that when he so earnestly seeks after Civil Society, he respects some partic18 . Originally: On the Impulsive Cause Constituting the State (civitas). 19. The infelicity of Tooke’s use of “community” for “state” becomes a particular problem from here on, as Pufendorf begins to contrast “primitive” communities (societas )—family, household, clan—with the state (civitas), whose appearance marks man’s transition from the natural to the civil condition. 20. Here begins Pufendorf’s important criticism of Aristotle’s conception of man as the political animal (zoon politikon). In treating man as a “rational and social animal ” whose virtues can only be realized in the polis, Aristotle and his scholastic followers naturalize the state. For Pufendorf, however, the state is an artificial arrangement for preventing man’s mutual predation, which means that it is civil discipline rather than natural virtue that makes the good citizen. I. This Inquiry necessary. L. N. N. l. 7. c. 1. II. Difficulty herein. L. N. N. l. 7. c. 1. §2. 188 the whole duty of man ular Advantage that will accrue to him thence. And altho’ without Society with his Fellow-Creatures, Man would be the most miserable of all Creatures; yet since the natural Desires and Necessities of Mankind might be abundantly satisfied by those primitive Kind of Societies, and by those Duties to which we are obliged, either by Humanity or Contracts ; it cannot immediately be concluded from this natural Society between Man and Man, that his Nature and Temper does directly incline him to the forming of Civil Communities. Which will more evidently appear, if we consider, What Condition Mankind is placed in by the Constitution of Civil Communities: What that Condition is, which Men enter into when they make themselves Members of a Civil State:21 What Qualities they are which properly intitle them to the Name of Political Creatures, and render them good Patriots or Subjects to the State.22 And, lastly, What there is in their Frame and Constitution, which seems, as we may say, to indispose them for living in a Civil Community.23 Whosoever becomes a Subject,24 immediately loses his Natural Liberty, and submits himself to some Authority, which is vested with the Power of Life and Death; and by the Commands of which, many Things must be done, which otherwise he would have been no ways willing to do, and many Things must be let alone, to which he had a strong Inclination : Besides, most of his Actions must terminate in the Publick Good, which in many Cases seems to clash with Private Men’s Advantage. But Man by his Natural Inclinations is carried to this, To be subject to no one, to do all Things as he lists, and in every thing to consult his single Advantage. 21. Section IV following. 22. Section V below. Note Tooke’s interpolation of the republican formula “good Patriots.” This blunts the edge of Pufendorf’s original “good citizen” (bonus civis), which he used as a polemical redescription of Aristotle’s “Political Creatures” (animal politicum). 23. Section VI below. 24. Originally “citizen” (civis). III. Twofold Inquiry. L. N. N. l. 7. c. 1. §4. IV. Natural State. according to the law of nature 189 But we call him a (Political Animal or) True Patriot, and Good Subject...