Thesis advisor: Christopher J. Kelly / This dissertation aims to understand the origins, effects, and limits of commerce in the modern world, taking Montesquieu as a guide in The Spirit of the Laws. It asks: To what extent is commerce natural, and how does commerce shape or constrain our understanding of happiness? I consider the extent to which commerce changes our nature, how it effects this change, and why it might fail to effect this change universally or permanently. Finally, I give an account of the best remedies or solutions for the problems we necessarily encounter in free commercial societies. We moderns are superior to the ancients, Montesquieu claims, on account of the knowledge we have gained concerning commerce. I argue that this epistemic superiority consists in knowledge concerning the best arrangement between the two sexes: “a kind of equality between the two sexes” that attaches men for the first time to “commerce with women.” Against standard readings that put forth political liberty or moderation as Montesquieu’s standard of the good in The Spirit of the Laws, I argue that Montesquieu also points to equality between the sexes as an alternative standard of the good. To show why and how his idea of sexual equality emerges with commerce, I begin by examining the natural origins of modern commerce. Modern commerce originates in the diversity of non-human nature, or a diversity of climates; so I begin by arguing that climate, Montesquieu’s new understanding of nature, is the natural basis of modern commerce. After elaborating on this new natural philosophy, I show how commerce, amidst this nonhuman natural diversity, paradoxically results in human uniformity or homogeneity: “everywhere there is commerce, there are gentle mores.” Commerce revolutionizes our mores by appealing to human flexibility and the ease of changing manners and mores rather than laws. Commerce does not result in a political universalism but a consensus concerning the most desirable sexual mores. Equality between the sexes is introduced by nature (as an accident of the physical environment), but a moral consensus only emerges through “history”: by comparing mores across time and place we see which mores are most desirable. However, neither reason nor passion is sufficient to secure these mores. Only by unleashing the imagination can we introduce equality between the sexes and attach men to “commerce with women” not by love itself, but by the “illusions” and “accessories” of love. The nature and history of commerce show, however, the limits of this human flexibility and this new standard. After all, why does sexual inequality persist, not least in despotisms and republics? On the one hand, humans are not only flexible and imaginative but also inflexible and attached to virtue in accord with “pure mores.” On the other hand, commerce is not, in fact, necessarily accompanied by gentle mores (and the luxury and vanity that accompany these mores): in contradistinction to “commerce of luxury,” “economic commerce” depends less on the imagination than on reason. These two alternatives (the life of virtue and that of economic commerce) not only show the limits of universalizing this new morality rooted in sexual equality but also clarify the challenges of reconciling the realms of domestic and political governance, or commerce at home with commerce abroad. Nonetheless, anyone unwilling or unable to retreat from the “worldliness” of modern commerce or insufficiently lucky to be born in a commercial republic should heed Montesquieu’s advice for how best to live rationally and freely in commercial societies. Thus I turn to his solutions for how to reconcile an openness to human diversity and strangers (as commerce consists of communication among diverse peoples) with a preservation of natural differences and “strength.” By conceiving of gentleness as a political virtue and cultivating a conventional form of jealousy, we can reconcile the demands of commerce with those of the virtue of humanity properly understood. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2022. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Political Science.

Texte remanié de: Thèse de doctorat--Nice Sophia Antipolis, 2007. / Bibliogr. p. 511-529.

PERSAN LETTERS- Abstract This thesis examines the conception of style in Persan letters. The point of this thesis is uncover unify elements of this novel. The first part of the study describe life of author and analyse the technique of the novel. We are posing a questions, why did author used the technigue of the novel in his letters and why is the story placed in oriental environment. Than we focused on use of irony with concrete part analysis. The second part is devote to main and side characters characteristics. We are trying to determine common and different elements in their description. We are looking for authobiographical attributes too. The last part examine the period neologisms use as a tool for parody of Parisian aristocracy salon speach.

Thesis advisor: Christopher Kelly / Montesquieu famously presents climate and terrain as enabling servitude in hot, fertile climes and on the exposed steppes of central Asia. He also traces England's exemplary constitution, with its balanced constitution, independent judiciary, and gentle criminal practices, to the unique conditions of early medieval northern Europe. The English "found" their government "in the forests" of Germany. There, the marginal, variegated terrain favored the dispersion of political power, and a pastoral way of life until well into the Middle Ages. In pursuing a primitive honor unrelated to political liberty as such, the barbaric Franks accidentally established the rudiments of the most "well-tempered" government. His turn to these causes accidental to human purposes in Parts 3-6 begins with his analysis of the problem of unintended consequences in the history of political reform in Parts 1-2. While the idea of balancing political powers in order to prevent any one individual or group from dominating the rest has ancient roots, he shows that it has taken many centuries to understand just what needs to be balanced, and to learn to balance against one threat without inviting another. Knowledge of the administration of criminal justice has proven the most important to liberty, as well as the most difficult to acquire and put into practice. Montesquieu's attention to accidental causes sheds light on the contradictions within human nature, and the complex relationship between humans and their physical and conventional environments. He shows how nature provides support for both political liberty and for despotism. The wisdom of organizing government with a view to political liberty, as well as the means for doing so, does not follow from human nature in the abstract, but has required reflection on experiences with the consequences of actual governments. By highlighting the dependence of free politics on conditions outside the legislator's immediate control, he encourages reformers to attend to the non-legal supports of political liberty, the limits of human ingenuity, and the risks of unintended consequences. His attention to forces beyond human control provides the occasion to clarify the character of liberal legislative prudence, the art of leading by "inviting without constraining." / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2012. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.. / Discipline: Political Science.

Thèse--Université de Paris. / At head of title: Faculté de droit de Paris. Includes bibliographical references.

Thèse-Geneva.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Columbia University, 1936. / Vita. Published also without thesis note. Bibliography: p. 331-359.

Thèse-Geneva.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Columbia University, 1936. / Vita. Published also without thesis note. Bibliography: p. 331-359.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1966. / Typescript. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 232-237)