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Baron de Montesquieu

Page history last edited by austinf 14 years, 12 months ago

 

BARON (Charles Louis) DE MONTESQUIEU

 

 

Biography

 

  •  Montesquieu was born in Bordeaux, France on January 18, 1689
  • Died at age 66 on February 10, 1755
  •  Born into a rich family but later was forced into a new and poor family during Charles's childhood
  •  Baron De Montesquieu was a peasant in his early life. In the village of La Brede, Montesquieu was born in a hard time when king Lois X1V was in control and could never win his pointless war attempts to dictate religion and culture. It had a terrible effect on France.
  •  Went to college and studied history and science. He eventually pursued a lawyer in the local government
  •  Montesquieu did not have great enthusiasm for law profession but the sprit behind the law was the key point.
  • His full name is Charles-Louis, Baron De Montesquieu.
  • With the death of his uncle, Charles inherited a huge fortune. This is how he could afford to publish his letters and books.
  • Charles got his fame in two ways. By writing his Persian Letters, (the letters written to criticize the lifestyle and liberties of the upper class French and the Church). The book he published in 1748 called On the Spirit of Laws, was his most famous work. The book talked about how government would work best in his mind concept.
  •  Montesquieu was also a noted jurist who spoke of relativism as it pertains to the law. Relativism is the belief that what is good of the goose may not necessarily be good for the gander.

 

Scholarly and Literary Career

 

  •  In order to continue his scholarly interests he sold, his office as president of Bordeaux parliament in 1721.
  • With the newly freed time he wrote the Persian letters.
  • The Persian letters was a fierce bitingly critical view of European civilization and manners.
  • The work takes form of letters that three Persians traveling in Europe sent to their families and friends back home.
  • Their letters are notes of what they see in the west.
  •  Montesquieu gave his travelers the foreign, commonsense understanding necessary to effectively criticize Europe (French) customs and what not. But he also gave the Persians the weakness necessary to make his readers recognize in them their own weaknesses. All kinds of European life were criticized.
  • Went to college and studied history and science. Later he became a local government lawyer.
  •  Charles attended Oratorian College de Juilly and received a law degree from the University of Bordeaux in 1708. After he got his degree he went to Paris to continue his legal studies.

    

 

Montesquieu's Five Main Beliefs

 

 

Beliefs About Government 

 

  •  Montesquieu argued the best government would be one that power is balanced between three groups of officials.
  • He thought that England, at the time the king (Law enforcer), parliament (Made Laws), and judges (Interpreted Laws) all had balanced powers was a good example of this.
  • He liked to call this idea of government Power Separation of Power. Each two branches could limit the power of one branch so they all had equal power and that is what helped find the government of the United States. Baron de Montesquieu is credited for the discovery or idea of this great government.
  •  He also believed that all things were made up of laws or rules that never change.
  •  Although he believed in the principal of democracy, he did not think all people were equal.
  • He approved slavery, and thought women were weaker than man and they had to obey their husband.
  • But he also thought that women had the ability to govern
  • With his branch system, each branch of government could limit the power of the other two branches
  • By each branch not being able to control one another, no branch of the government could threaten the freedom of the people
  • Believes three governments were divided among monarchies, republicans, and despotisms

 

 

        Religion

 

  • God did not play a big part in the spirit of laws theory
  • Montesquieu thought that it was a general mistake to base civil laws from religious principals
  •  He thought that there should be all kinds of religions and not just one because that one would be forced on everyone and pressure them

 

 

        Commerce 

  • Montesquieu thought that commerce was the only thing without overwhelming drawbacks
  • he thought the aim of commerce was for the most part was to supply luxuries
  • he also believes that commerce benefits all countries except those who only have there land and profit from their own land l

 

 

     Climate and Geography

 

  • He thought that it affects temperaments and customs of a country's inhabitants
  • He believes that colder climates make coarser juices run through our fibers and the fibers are more constricted and hotter climates do the opposite and these affect  our characters.
  • And he thought that quality of soil affects the form of government.

 

 

     Liberty

 

  • Was a liberalism of fear
  • He thought that liberty is not the freedom to do whatever we want.
  • Liberty also requires that law only threats to public order and security.

 

 

 

Famous Quotations

 

  • "A nation may lose its liberties in a day and not miss the in a century" 
  • "Solemnity is the shield of idiots"
  •  "Useless laws weaken the necessary laws"
  •  "Not to be loved is a misfortune, but it is an insult to be loved no longer"
  •  "A fool who, not content with having bored those who have lived with him, insist on tormenting generations to come"
  • "The  tyranny of a prince in an oligarchy is not so dangerous to the public welfare as the apathy of a citizen in a democracy"
  • "There is something in animals beside the power of motion. They are not machines, they feel"
  • If the triangles made a god, they would give him three sides"
  • "What orators lack in depth they make up for in length"
  • "Useless laws weeken the necessary laws
  • "There is no crueler tyranny than that which is perpetrated under the shield of law and in the name of justice"
  • "I have always observed that to succeed in the world one should seem a fool, but be wise"
  • "Each citizen contributes to the revenues of the State a portion of his property in order that his tenure of the rest may be secure"
  • "Trade is the best cure for prejudice"                                               

Sources                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

 

  

Views on Euthanasia

 

One reason Baron De Montesquieu would be for euthanasia is because he was always trying to give a lot of power to the people and if the people have the power they have the choice. That means they have the choice to do euthanasia.

 

-Austin F.

 

Baron de Montesquieu's views on euthanasia was a pretty easy concept. He thought government would work out if they couldn't overpower one another. The government was based on groups that made decisions. I think his view on euthanasia would be like this: Since he believes that no two branches overpower another then the person who wants to be put down should be eligible for that. From his concept, people shouldn't be able to dictate what you do so they have more choice and power. They have the right to commit euthanasia with his concepts.

 

-Chris M.

 

 

Death Penalty 

  • Since Charles's view on government was based on three groups, his death penalty standards would be like this. There would be a group of officials and they would vote if the criminals actions deserved the death penalty. I don't think it would be in a court system because he believes that more things are accomplished if they are voted in. Since in his government system two groups can overpower one, then this is a good example that a non-court system would be the way he would solve the death penalty situations.

 

          -Chris M.

 

 

  • since montesquieu has three groups of government and trys to give power to the people, he would most likly agree with the Death penalty because it would be hard for a person to get it after all those groups went threw the case and one of those three groups of government  can be overpowered by the other two branches.

 

 

 

 

views on plato theory

 

  • I think that montesquieu would agree with this theory. he would agree with it because most philosophers based there beliefs on plato. and another reason is that the way that he set up his government was very similar to platos perfect colony. the colony and the government are similar in two ways one is that the amount of power is controlled no one person or branch will rise above the other. the other reason is that the way things should be done. one branch cant just pass a law with out the other branches knowing. a nother small reason i that they both give quite a bit of power to the people. And there is one thing that they mite not agree on is the social ranking of females montesquieu thinks that the have no power in the house hold but in polotics and plato thinks that every one in the community is just as valuable as the other.

    -austin feuerstein

     

 

Comments (11)

austinf said

at 9:05 am on Feb 27, 2009

if you could add more to this that would be nice and change any errors thanks

austinf said

at 5:51 pm on Mar 3, 2009

hey look at the example at the top of the adopt a philosopher page and make more bullets

austinf said

at 6:44 pm on Mar 3, 2009

chris m. just add bullets to the already added heading pogreba told me that this is the way it has to be

Don Pogreba said

at 11:01 pm on Mar 3, 2009

I think the bullets look better on the biography section right now. Do some spell checking, though!

Jimmy M said

at 7:31 pm on Mar 5, 2009

Hey Mott. You're working on your wiki right now to? Way to be. PS - Thanks for voting for my side in the debate today. ;D

Jimmy M said

at 7:33 pm on Mar 5, 2009

CHRIS. NICK HAS THE LOCK ON MY PAGE BUT ISNT DOING ANYTHING. HELP. ): haha. I'm waiting for him now. dammnit.

Don Pogreba said

at 10:13 pm on Mar 5, 2009

You guys have certainly improved this page, but still need to work on the philosophy section. You need to have three clear categories of belief. There's a lot of biography here. For additional information, how about this page?

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/montesquieu/#4.3

austinf said

at 8:08 am on Mar 9, 2009

mott put quotes about the him

austinf said

at 8:09 am on Mar 9, 2009

put stuff about the death penalty

chrism said

at 12:11 pm on Mar 9, 2009

Austin I put a bunch of more quotes on in class today so we're good on those. If you're going to work on this at home before he grades it tonight add some info on the sections that are not well covered. I will make a death penalty section.

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