Samuel Pufendorf 1632 – 1694
Samuel Pufendorf was a German jurist, political philosopher, and historian, the principal continental developer of the natural-law tradition that ran from Grotius to Locke. The first occupant of a chair of natural and international law, at Heidelberg, he later served as historiographer royal in Sweden and Brandenburg. His Of the Law of Nature and of Nations and the popular abridgment On the Duty of Man and Citizen articulated an account of natural law grounded in human sociability and a doctrine of the state as the product of consent. His thought shaped the early American constitutional tradition.
Key facts
- Nationality
- German
- Era
- Modern
- Movements
- Early Modern, Political
Selected quotes
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Attributed to Samuel Pufendorf:
“Man is a sociable animal, and his nature compels him to seek the society of his kind.”
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Attributed to Samuel Pufendorf:
“The state arises from the consent of the governed.”
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Attributed to Samuel Pufendorf:
“Natural law is the rule by which we know what is right and what is wrong.”
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Attributed to Samuel Pufendorf:
“All men are equal in their original dignity.”
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Attributed to Samuel Pufendorf:
“The first duty of natural law is to do no harm to another.”