Political Science and Law: Citizenship Under Construction

Abstract

It is a real honor and a great pleasure to present this work of my friends and colleagues, to the public, lay readers, as well as professionals will very much enjoy this scholarly book. The authors, professors of the University Center of Curitiba – UNICURITIBA, and the First Nations University of Canada - FNUNIV exhibit great ability and wisdom not merely in the understanding and interpretation of the great works of the philosophy of the law of the Western Civilization, but also an acute ease in explaining deep and complex ideas to readers. In this narrative you will find the origins of political ideas and the sources of the law of our European descendent countries. The story begins with a discussion of the various types of thought, methods and science. In the second part, the authors dig deeper to un-ravel the intellectual foundations of the classical theory of law in Greece and Rome, dealing with authors of great importance such as Socrates, Plato, Aristotle and Cicero, as well as other smaller and more ancient ones. With Christian heritage, the Western philosophy of law demonstrates more religious characteristics, and the conflicts of the monarchies and the Church come to the fore. Catholic thinkers such as St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas are the best known of the Middle Age, but Protestant authors such as Luther and Calvin are also addressed, as well as non-religious ones, such as the realist Machiavelli that come to surpass the schools of thought of the traditional Church. With the revolution of modernity, the world of Europe became more secular and the most rationalistic and empirical philosophies emerged. The authors describe well the diverse currents of the modern era, including theories of the State, such as those of Bodin and Hobbes, the individualism and liberalism of Locke, Montesquieu, Kant and the Enlightenment, and the more collective theorists such as Hegel and Marx. The journey through the history of political and legal philosophy ends in the twentieth century with the concepts of Max Weber, the Social State, and the theories of Hans Kelsen.