Two Books of the Elements of Universal Jurisprudence. Samuel Pufendorf

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ from which it springs and upon which it depends, and by which a human action is brought to completion

       DEFINITION XII

       Obligation is an operative moral quality by which some one is bound to furnish, allow, or endure something

       DEFINITION XIII

       A law is a decree by which a superior binds one subject to him to direct his actions according to the command of the superior

       DEFINITION XIV

       Authority is an active moral power by which some person legitimately and with a direct moral effect can perform an action

       DEFINITION XV

       The affections of a voluntary action are the modes through which it is denominated or defined in a certain manner

       DEFINITION XVI

       A good action is one which agrees with the law; a bad action is one which disagrees with the same

       DEFINITION XVII

       A just action is one which of free moral choice is rightly directed to that person to whom it is owed

       DEFINITION XVIII

       The quantity of moral actions is the estimative measure by which they are said to be of a certain degree

       Appendix to Definition XVIII in which the Moral Sphere is explained

       DEFINITION XIX

       By the effect of a moral action is meant that which is produced by it

       DEFINITION XX

       Merit is an estimative moral quality resulting to a man from an action which he is not bound to perform, in accordance with which there is owed him an equivalent good on the part of the one in whose favour that action was undertaken

       DEFINITION XXI

       Demerit is an estimative moral quality resulting to a man from a bad action, through which he is under obligation to make amends for the injury done to a second person thereby

       Book II

       AXIOM I

       Any action whatsoever that may be directed according to a moral norm, which is within a man’s power to do or not to do, may be imputed to him. And, on the contrary: That which neither in itself nor in its cause was within a man’s power, may not be imputed to him (that is, as a matter of desert, yet it is well if that be done as an act of grace on the part of the one who makes the imputation, in case some good has come to pass)

       AXIOM II

       Any person whatsoever can effectively, or with the obligation to perform them, enjoin on someone subject to himself those things to which his authority over the other extends itself

       OBSERVATION I

       A man can judge properly of things apprehended by the power of his intellect

       OBSERVATION II

       From an internal principle a man can move himself to undertake or to leave undone a certain action

       OBSERVATION III

       A man is destined by nature to lead a social life with men

       OBSERVATION IV

       Right reason dictates that a man should care for himself in such a way that human society be not thrown into disorder

       OBSERVATION V

       The law of nature alone is not directly sufficient to preserve the social life of man, but it is necessary that sovereignties be established in particular societies

      THE ELEMENTS OF

      UNIVERSAL JURISPRUDENCE

      BY

      SAMUEL PUFENDORF

BOOK I

DEFINITION I

By human actions are meant the voluntary actions of a man in communal life regarded under the imputation of their effects.

1. Of a voluntary action which is also moral.

2. The material element.

3. The fundamental element.

4. The formal element.

5. That which is a positive entity.

6. The division of actions.

7. The natural action.

8. Plan of the first book.

1. We call voluntary actions those actions placed within the power of man, which depend upon the will, as upon a free cause, in such wise that, without its decision setting forth from the same man’s actions as elicited by previous cognition of the intellect, they would not come to pass; and, indeed, according as they are regarded not in their natural condition, but in so far as they come to pass from a decision of the will. Now a voluntary action involves two things: One is, as it were, the material element, which is the exercise regarded in itself; the other is, as it were, the formal element, which is the dependence of the exercise upon the decision of the will, and the reason, operating with a kind of freedom of choice, by which the action as decided by the will is conceived.¹ The exercise itself, considered apart and in itself for the sake of distinction, is better called an act of the will, or one coming from the will, than voluntary. Now, in truth, an action of the will is further regarded either in itself and absolutely, according СКАЧАТЬ