Jean Baudin, Political, Ideological And Legal Research

Jean Bodin (1529/30-1596) is one of the most influential political thinkers in the sixteenth-century Europe, he was fluent in several languages and many areas of infiltration. He can also be described as a encyclopedic thinker. There are two of the most important works in Bodin's life. Les six livres de la république is on behalf of the French Renaissance, and the sum of the legal and political thought. Another is Medthodus ad facilem historiarum cognitionem, it can be regarded as the culmination humanism historiography. This thesis is divided into five parts only in respect of its political and legal thinking to make a preliminary study.The first part describes Bodins life, writings and ideas of the development track and focuses on the historical background of his thinking in combination with the complexity of the times. The second part begins from Bodin's religious thoughts, and explores the religious background of his political and legal theory. The third part elaborated Bodins sovereignty theory , including the historical origins of the concept of sovereignty, Bodins theory of sovereignty, the methodology and construction of systems, and the influence of Bodins theory of the state. Part IV investigates Bodin's legal theory, including his theory of law of nature, view of justice and constitutional ideology. The last part compares Bodin with some other thinkers, aiming to analyze Bodins position in the political and legal theory.This paper tries to analyze the historical contextualism as historical perspective, revealing Bodin's character and complexity of thought and focusing on analyzing the realism and idealism, i.e.,humanism contradiction. In the face of turbulent society, Bodin standed by the reality of human nature and reality of the position of national politics, and opened up a new reality of the political line with the concept of absolute state power. On the other hand, Bodin advocated limited absolute sovereignty, and rejected the interference of religion ,which showed the very neo-Platonism to pursue the spirit of religious tolerance and sermon. This also constitutes Bodin thought of two charms and mysteries: First of all, his legendary life; Secondly, there is a big difference in the interpretation of the ideological and political position in his descendants. So, although Bodins work is tedious and obscure to some extent, it doesn't devalue him as a thinker in the history of thoughts.