The Birth of Rights Universalism from Reformed Law of Nations. The Natural Law Theory of Heinrich and Samuel Cocceji and its controversial Reception in the European Enlightenment

• Applicant: Dr. Stefanie Ertz
• Subject Area: History of Philosophy ; Early Modern History
• Term: since 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 524373284

The project aims to make accessible the natural law doctrine of Heinrich Cocceji (1644-1719) and his son, editor and continuator Samuel (1679-1755). In a monograph, Cocceji's natural law, which centers on a theocratic-voluntary concept of inalienable liberties, is to be presented (1) in its political and ideological contexts and (2) in its controversial reception in the European Enlightenment. Forgotten in the 19th century, the Cocceji's natural rights doctrine was long neglected in comparison to the prominent theories of Pufendorf and Thomasius. The project will show, however, that the Cocceji's natural law represented a veritable, systematically strong alternative to Pufendorf's natural law theory, which was based on an anthropology of deficiencies and embedded in an ethics of duty, and that it was perceived as such by many contemporaries until the pre-March period, so that important impulses for the development of liberal-egalitarian theories of rights in the German and Scottish late Enlightenment emanated from it and it can claim an important rank in the modern genealogy of subjective rights. The project is devoted to the development of this natural rights doctrine over the relatively long period from about 1670-1720, describing at the same time a history of entanglement: entanglement of genesis and reception, and entanglement of Calvinist (as well as Huguenot) and Lutheran (Hallean) early Enlightenment. These intertwinements were intrinsically involved in the development of the Cocceji's natural law doctrine and thus need to be explored as well. Thus, a much more complex and differentiated picture of the early Enlightenment shaped by natural law emerges than was previously the case.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants