Discourses Concerning Government Classic Reprint Algernon Sidney 9781333981006 Books
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Excerpt from Discourses Concerning Government
Ho' there is nothing more ufeful and entertaining. Than the lives of great and excellent men, yetzit. Often happens, that, through the neglect of their friends and contemporaries, proper materials are. Wanting and thus it is in the prefent cafe. Kine. Cannot but wonder, that the life of our author,. Who was a man of fuch excellent abilities, fuch a.
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Discourses Concerning Government Classic Reprint Algernon Sidney 9781333981006 Books
One of my harder reading experiences, this good book set the foundations for the philosophies and writings of some of our Founding Fathers.Thomas Jefferson considered Sidney's book one of the best in history, and treasured the copy that sat in his library. The book's content is wonderful, but the writing style made it difficult for me to cruise through the pages like I have with others, and I read a lot of old books. Perhaps its just me.Sidney's writings established the important foundation of denying the claim that Kings were God's authorities on Earth. Algernon claimed that our independence was a gift from God, which ultimately led to his execution; but, they pardoned him some years after he was beheaded. He became known as a martyr to the cause of Republican government. It's a sad story about an important book.
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Discourses Concerning Government Classic Reprint Algernon Sidney 9781333981006 Books Reviews
From the interesting foreword by Thomas G. West
"Thomas Jefferson regarded John Locke and Algernon Sidney as the two leading sources for the American understanding of the principles of political liberty and the rights of humanity. Locke's Second Treatise is readily available, but since 1805 only one major reprint of Sidney's Discourses has appeared until now. This neglect is as undeserved today as it was when John Adams wrote to Jefferson in 1823
'I have lately undertaken to read Algernon Sidney on government.... As often as I have read it, ... it now excites fresh wonder that this work has excited so little interest in the literary world.' [Adams recommends this book,] 'as well for the intrinsic merit of the work, as for the proof it brings of the bitter sufferings of the advocates of liberty from that time to this, and to show the slow progress of moral, philosophical, and political illumination in the world...'"
That ought to be recommendation enough, but if you wonder why you should read Sidney in addition to (or instead of) Locke, West's foreword is especially enlightening
"Sidney proves to be closer to the Greek and Roman classics than Locke is. It is characteristic that Sidney quotes frequently from the ancients while Locke hardly ever does. But the ancients were not 'classical republicans' in a Machiavelian sense. Their political thought always began or ended with the individual human being, not in the sense of an isolated unit, but as a being oriented by human nature to a life in accord with reason. [West then identifies] "particular illustrations of this broad difference between Sidney and Locke".
It is unlikely that you have heard of either Robert Filmer or his book, "Patriarcha" [published in 1680, though written in 1630], a defense of the rights of kings, as it is unlikely that you live under the rule of a king. However, as often happens in the history of ideas, the ideas themselves have not died, but are rather re-outfitted in different costumes. Sidney's point-by-point rebuttal to Filmer is therefore as relevant today as it ever was.
Algernon Sydney (1623-1683) was an English politician, republican political theorist, colonel, and opponent of King Charles II of England, who became involved in a plot against the King and was executed for treason. Thomas Jefferson regarded John Locke and Sidney as the two leading sources for the American understanding of the principles of political liberty and the rights of humanity. Amazingly, however, this book has only seldom been reprinted, until recently. Sidney wrote the book in response to Sir Robert Filmer's book, Filmer 'Patriarcha' and Other Writings (Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought), which defended the "divine right of kings." Sidney's book was first published posthumously in 1698.
He observes that "there is no such thing in nature as a slave" (Pg. 17), and that "No right can come by conquest." (Pg. 32) All just magisterial power is "from the People." (Pg. 69) In the context of a discussion of defense in time of war, he makes his famous statement (best known through Benjamin Franklin's quotation of it in Poor Richard's Almanac), "God helps those who help themselves." (Pg. 210)
He strongly supports the right of men to dissolve human societies, and "justly defend themselves against injustice by their own natural right, when the ways prescribed by public authority cannot be taken." (Pg. 340) Governments are established "for the good of the governed" (Pg. 355), and laws are not made by kings, "because Nations will be governed by Rule, and not Authority." (Pg. 392) It is not the king that makes the law, "but the law that makes the king." (Pg. 393)
"Whatsover therefore proceeds not from the consent of the people, must be de facto only, that is, void of all right." (Pg. 507) The general revolt of a nation cannot be called a "rebellion," and "rebellion is not always evil." (Pg. 519)
Sidney's book deserves to be much more widely known than is currently the case; this book will be of great interest both to students of American history, and of freedom in general.
Excellent !!!!
historically useful
Probably the book that started the American Revolution, written 100 years earlier. This is an essential text. Unfortunately, it is only a photostatic copy of a much earlier edition, including all the defects. Many pages are illegible.
One of my harder reading experiences, this good book set the foundations for the philosophies and writings of some of our Founding Fathers.Thomas Jefferson considered Sidney's book one of the best in history, and treasured the copy that sat in his library. The book's content is wonderful, but the writing style made it difficult for me to cruise through the pages like I have with others, and I read a lot of old books. Perhaps its just me.
Sidney's writings established the important foundation of denying the claim that Kings were God's authorities on Earth. Algernon claimed that our independence was a gift from God, which ultimately led to his execution; but, they pardoned him some years after he was beheaded. He became known as a martyr to the cause of Republican government. It's a sad story about an important book.
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