Analysis Of Montesquieu’s View On "the Spirit Of The Laws"

Mainly taking Montesquieu’s The Spirit of the Laws as the textual researchobject; through sorting out and analyzing the internal logical structure of The Spirit ofthe Laws, this thesis aims to explore the true meaning of Montesquieu’s view on “thespirit of the laws".This article is composed of the following parts: foreword, introduction and thebody part.In the foreword, the author describes the research object and research approachesof the article and the research status quo as conducted by domestic and westernscholars on Montesquieu’s thoughts. This part also focuses on the innovation of thispaper, that by in-depth research of the general structure and the micro details of TheSpirit of the Laws to study its internal logical structure, and thus grasp the truemeaning of Montesquieu’s view on "the spirit of the laws".In the introduction part, the author points out that the cutting point of studyingMontesquieu’s view on "the spirit of the laws" is the internal logical structure of TheSpirit of the Laws, which he continues to present specifically and carefully.The first chapter of the body part zeros in on the ideological foundation ofMontesquieu’s view on "the spirit of the laws". The author concentrates on profoundanalysis of the first, twenty-sixth and twenty-ninth chapters of The Spirit of the Laws,to introduce the ideological basis of Montesquieu’s thoughts on “the spirit of thelaws” from the following four aspects: Montesquieu’s understanding of the "laws" as"inevitable relationships "; his understanding of human nature; his division of allkinds of laws of the world, and the interrelationships among these laws; hiscomprehension of the qualities legislators should obtain and the content of the laws.Montesquieu also straightened up the major elements of "the spirit of the laws". Firstof all, Montesquieu examined the nature and the principles of government’s politicalsystem, and pointed out that education and the law are main factors affecting theprinciples of politics. Secondly, Montesquieu investigated the attack and defenserelations between the countries. Thirdly, Montesquieu proposed straightforwardly thatthe absolute goal of his own political ideals---the tolerant politics and politicalfreedom. Fourthly, the degree of political tolerance and freedom vary according toeach country’s specific national conditions. The determining factors generally include:climate, soil, the general spirit of the nation, trade condition, population, and religion. The above opinions of Montesquieu’s led to the legislative thinking that the principlesof the politics should be considered as the starting point, the tolerance of the politicsas the target, and at the same time take the specific conditions of a country intoconsideration.The second chapter is about the guiding effect of Montesquieu’s view on "thespirit of the laws" to legislators. On the one hand, Montesquieu has deep feelings ofthe world and the whole body of mankind, so he proposed legislative principles forlegislators around the world. On the other hand, Montesquieu also has a strong senseof patriotism, which resulted in his profound insights on the future development ofFrance. Therefore, mainly from the perspective of French history, he providedlegislative proposals to the French legislators at that time.In the third chapter, the author illustrated the meaning of taking Montesquieu’sview on "the spirit of the laws" as a reference to contemporary China. Starting fromtalking about the essence of Montesquieu’s thinking---the important roles of“Relationship Theory” and the principles of politics, combined with analyzing themeaning of making representatives of people contemporary Chinese legislators andbuilding up a society with rule of the law as China’s legislative objectives, the authoris convinced that if Chinese lawmakers manage to understand " the spirit of the laws "here in China, it is predictable that China will finally realize the goal of constructing asocialist country with Chinese characteristics which is under the rule of law!...