A History of Mediæval Political Theory in the West, Vol. 1: The Second Century to the Ninth (Classic Reprint) - Tapa blanda

Excerpt from A History of Mediæval Political Theory in the West, Vol. 1: The Second Century to the Ninth

Between the active and profound political thought of Plato and Aristotle and the energetic political speculation of modern times there lies a great interval of time and an almost equally great interval of character. It has Often been thought that between these periods there was no such thing as a living and active political theory. It has been thought that with the disappearance of the free Greek communities political specula tion became wholly abstract and lifeless; that the freedom of men's political thought was first crushed by the weight of the great empires, and then lost in the confusion of the barbaric invasions in which the ancient civilisation perished, and that in the sixteenth century political theory arose suddenly and without any immediate antecedents, being grounded in part upon original reflection, abstract or related to actual political conditions, and in part on the recovery of ancient philosophy.

About the Publisher

Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com

This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Excerpt from A History of Mediæval Political Theory in the West, Vol. 1: The Second Century to the Ninth

In bringing out the first volume of a History of Mediæval Political Theory, it may be well to indicate briefly the character of the work which we hope to carry out. In this volume we deal with the elements out of which the more developed theory of the Middle Ages arose; we hope to carry on the work to the political theorists of the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries - that is, to the time when, as it is thought, the specific characteristics of modern political theory began to take shape.

The subject with which we are endeavouring to deal is strictly a history of theory, not of institutions. We believe, indeed, that in the Middle Ages, as at other times, the two things are closely related to each other, - that theory never moves very far away from the actual conditions of public life; but yet the two things are distinct, if not separate. The principles which lie behind the development of political institutions are sometimes the subject of careful reflection, sometimes are hardly apprehended; but in either case they are to be distinguished from any particular concrete forms in which they may be embodied.

About the Publisher

Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com

This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.