Civilization – Nature – Subjugation

The book examines the early modern debates on just war, transatlantic conquest and slavery, the 18th- and 19th-century shift towards natural science, and contemporary philosophy on decolonization. Political circumstance and exploiting available terminology produced new meanings or “translations” which increasingly developed a momentum of their own.

Christoph Haar received his BA in history and politics from Durham University and his MPhil and PhD in intellectual history from the University of Cambridge. He is Lecturer in Early Modern History at Goethe University Frankfurt. His research interests include early modern political thought, cultural history and intellectual history. Matthias Kaufmann studied mathematics, philosophy and political science. He was Professor of Philosophy (Ethics) at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg. His main fields of work are political philosophy, philosophy of law, applied ethics and early modern philosophy. Christian Müller received his MA in philosophy and history from Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg. His research interests include history of science and philosophy.

Early modern natural law – Just war – Theory of property – Slavery – Theories of race – Order of nature – Colonialism – Justification of exploitation – Decolonization – Intellectual history