States of War: On Enlightenment, Reason, and Political Theory

States of War: Enlightenment Origins of the Political (Columbia University Press, 2011)

by David W. Bates

An examination of how novel theories of reason in the age of automata helped forge a new concept of the political that emphasized unity and existential security, but also legal protection of the citizen.

Introduction, “Constitutional Violence and Enlightenment Thought”

Ch. 1, “The Autonomous State and the Origin of the Political”

Ch. 2, “States of Reasoning: Modern Natural-Law Theory"

Ch. 3, “Locke’s Natural History of the Political”

Ch. 4, “Systems of Sovereignty in Montesquieu”

Ch. 5, “Rousseau’s Cybernetic Political Body”