Samuel von Pufendorf
1632–1694
Nationality: German
Historical Period: The Early Modern Period
Samuel Pufendorf was born in Saxony in 1632, the son of a Lutheran clergyman. He studied at Leipzig and Jena and held the first modern professorship in natural law, at the University of Heidelberg. Pufendorf was successively professor of natural law at Lund in Sweden and Swedish historiographer royal. He ended his career as Prussian court historian and died in Berlin in 1694. In addition to fundamental works in Protestant natural law, much admired by Locke, Pufendorf contributed importantly to German constitutional theory and wrote major historical works.
See the Liberty Matters online discussion on Pufendorf on Power and Liberty
Quotes from Samuel von Pufendorf:
- Samuel von Pufendorf on rulers confusing their own self-interest with that of the State
Titles from Samuel von Pufendorf:
- Author: The Divine Feudal Law: Or, Covenants with Mankind, Represented
- Author: An Introduction to the History of the Principal Kingdoms and States of Europe (1682, 2013)
- Author: Of the Nature and Qualification of Religion, in Reference to Civil Society
- Author: The Present State of Germany
- Author: Two Books of the Elements of Universal Jurisprudence
- Author: The Whole Duty of Man According to the Law of Nature (1673, 2003)