George Lawson's 'Politica' and the English Revolution

The first full account, analysis and subsequent history of George Lawson's Politica, 1660–89.

Conal Condren (Author)

9780521522380, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 8 August 2002

232 pages
22.9 x 15.3 x 1.7 cm, 0.382 kg

This is the first full account, analysis and subsequent history of George Lawson's Politica, 1660–89. For long accepted as a significant figure, through his criticism of Hobbes and his possible influence on Locke, Lawson has never been studied in depth, nor has his biography been previously established. Professor Condren here provides the context and the analysis of Lawson's major work, in the process re-dating it and providing a quite different interpretation from previous readings. A substantial section is devoted to the history of the text and its use in controversies in the period 1660–89, and there is some reassessment of the relationship between Hobbes, Locke and Lawson. The study also uses Lawson's text to reopen questions about English seventeenth-century political theory in general, and to prefigure a theoretical study on metaphor and political conceptualisation. The book thus operates on a number of levels, philosophical and linguistic as well as historical.

Preface
Texts used and a concordance for the 'Politica'
List of abbreviations
Part I. Historiographical and Biographical Preliminaries: 1. Historiography
2. Biography
Part II. An Exposition of Lawson's Politica: 3. God and human society
4. Community and political power
5. The keys
6. The limits of subjection
Part III. An Examination of the Politica: 7. Providence and rhetoric
8. Community, representation and consent
9. Settlement and resistance
10. From Civil War to settlement
Part IV. The Fate of the Politica from the Settlement to the Glorious Revolution: 11. Lawson and Baxter
12. Lawson and Hunfrey
13. The Politica and the allegiance controversy
14. Aftermath
Part V. Conclusion: 15. Between Hobbes and Locke
16. Theory and historiography
Index.

Subject Areas: History of ideas [JFCX]