Book Reviews : Baruch Spinoza and Western Democracy. By JOSEPH DUNNER. (New York: Philosophical Library. 1955. Pp. 142. $3.00.)
| DOI | 10.1177/106591295600900139 |
| Date | 01 March 1956 |
| Author | Glenn Tinder |
| Published date | 01 March 1956 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
207
sources,
especially
those
in
local
archives,
to
reveal
and
define
the
diversity
of
medieval
civilization.
Of
the
studies
here
collected,
grouped
under
three
general headings,
&dquo;Religion
and
Heresy,&dquo;
&dquo;Science
and
Thought,&dquo;
and
&dquo;Institutional
and
Local
History,&dquo;
several
will
be
of
particular
interest
to
political
scientists.
In
&dquo;The
Religious
Foundations
of
Luther’s
Social
Views,&dquo;
Charles
Trinkaus
relates
Luther’s
support
of
a
practical
absolutism
in
politics
and
of
a
double
standard
in
business
ethics
to
his
interpretation
of
Christianity
as
a
purely
subjective
and
spiritual
experience
and
his
consequent
repudia-
tion
of
an
objective
morality.
&dquo;Pierre
Dubois
on
the
Arbitration
of
Inter-
national
Disputes,&dquo;
by
Merriam
Sherwood,
clarifies
the
important
but
ambiguous
passage
in
the
De
Recuperation
in
the
light
of
the
characteristic
medieval
procedures
for
arbitration,
pointing
out
that
the
significance
of
Dubois’s
proposal
was
his
suggestion
that
commonly
used
procedures
for
the
arbitration
of
specific
disputes
could
be
expanded
to
provide
a
perma-
nent
and
compulsory
system
of
arbitration.
The
publication
by
George
B.
Fowler
of
the
supposedly
lost
text
of
the
little
De
O,~cii5 ...
of
Engelbert
of
Admont
adds
to
our
knowledge
of
one
of
the
most
interesting
of
medieval
publicists.
Two
other
studies
have
an
especially
timely
interest.
Comparing
the
procedures
of
the
medieval
Inquisition
with
those
of
the
secular
criminal
courts
of
thirteenth
and
fourteenth
century
France,
Albert
C.
Shannon,
O.S.A.,
shows
that
the
practice
of
protecting
witnesses
by
withholding
their
names
from
the
defendant
was
common
to
both
kinds
of
tribunals
but
that
the
Inquisition,
unlike
the
secular
court,
furnished
the
accused
with
a
full
transcript
of
the
testimony
against
him.
Pearl
Kibre,
in
&dquo;Academic
Oaths
in
the
University
of
Paris ...
,&dquo;
describes
and
illustrates
the
opera-
tion
of
the
medieval
forerunner
of
the
academic
loyalty
oath.
The
medieval
oath,
under
pain
of
judicially
enforceable
sanctions,
bound
all
members
of
the
university
to
obey
its
statutes
and
to
defend
its
rights
and
privileges;
since
it
continued
to
bind
all
alumni
of
the
university,
it
served
to
protect
the
university
from
the
aggressions
of
ecclesiastical
or
royal
officials.
Oberlin
College.
EWART
LEWIS.
Baruch
Spinoza
and
Western
Democracy.
By
JOSEPH
DUNNER.
(New
York:
Philosophical
Library.
1955.
Pp.
142.
$3.00.)
Spinoza
has
not
assumed,
in
the
minds
of
most
people,
a
place
among
the
great
figures
in
the
history
of
liberal
and
democratic
political
thought.
In
view
of
his
eminence
in
metaphysics
and
ethics,
and
his
many
eloquent
statements
on
behalf
of
liberty
and
democracy,
this
is
a
rather
puzzling
fact.
Professor
Dunner’s
object,
however,
is
not
to
explain
it,
but
to
set
it
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