Thought Of Montesquieu

Montesquieu is a famous French Enlightenment thinker of the 18th century, Montesquieu lived in an era when French autocratic monarchy had reached its summit and then reverse to decline. The Ancien Regime was facing its overall crisis in French.. Meanwhile, the new capitalist system had been installed in England. Montesquieu keeps on to take the view of Descart 's rationalism. He stands at the frontier of his age to critisize the autocracy, the superstition of the church and religious fanatical atrocities. He introduced parliamentary democratic system of England to French people with enthusiasm. Nevertheless, he also advocates to maintain the privilege of thenobility. This thesis tries to introduce Montesquieu's contributions in sociology, politics, jurisprudency, historical philosophy. In the process of the introduction, the author also wants to reveal the paradoxes of his thoughts and explain them.This thesis consists of Preface ,the First Chapter through the Forth Chapter and supplementary discuss.In Ppreface, after a brief introduction of the background of Montesquieu's Enlightenment thoughts, the author introduces briefly Montesquieu's important contributions in the different areas of social science and the current situation of the study on Montesquieu's thoughts both in China and foreign countries.The author points out that though Chinese scholars have given much study to Montesquieu, the study of Montesquieu's thoughts in Chinese academic circle is not all-round enough. The character of nobility and conservatism of Montesquieu's thought hasn't been introduced satisfactorily. The difference and connection between the school of natural law and Montesquieu's thought hasn't been pointed out correctly.The first chapter introduces Montesquieu's life and the basis of his thoughts. Through Montesquieu's personal experience, we can get some information about French society in that age and the development of Montesquieu's thoughts. In this chapter ,the author also gives a brief introduction to Montesquieu's view of natural religion which is the reflection of Montesquieu'srationalism. The view of natural religion and rationalism is the prerequisite to his study on humansociety.The second chapter firstly introduces Montesquieu's new definition of law. Then it points out the connection and difference between Montesquieu's thought on law and that of the school ofnatural law. The author reveals that Montesquieu's view of "the spirit of the law" reflects a new method of the study of human society. This new method is inspired by the achievement and method of natural science in 17th and 18th century. Thus Montesquieu studies political and juridical system of human society by a positive method.The third chapter introduces Montesquieu's political thought and theory. First it introduces Montesquieu's theory of the specy of government, Montesquieu advocates that there are three species of government which are the republic, monarchy and despotism. Every specy of government has its fixed principle.which makes itself move. Every specy of government is built up in a definite social condition. Montesquieu thinks the nature of despotism is degenerated. Through the analysis of the democracy and monarchy, Montesquieu discusses the conditions which can make a government become indulgent and how to prevent this two indulgent governments slip to despotism. Then thischapter also introduces Montesquieu's political theory of the separation of powers which aims to guarantee the political liberty.The forth chapter analyses Montesquieu's investigation to the general reason of the historical development in his work "consideration on the causes of rise and fall of Roman Empire". The author explains Montesquieu's contribution to the theory of history. Then this chapter introduces that Montesquieu has explored continually the reasons of how the political and juridical systems are formed and discussed "the spirit of a nation". In this chapter, the author argues that Montesquieu stands not at the view of the determinism of the geog...