Patriarcha: The Complete Political Works - Imperium Press

by Robert Filmer

Robert Filmer is the greatest proponent of the divine right of kings the English-speaking world has ever produced. Writing in defence of the Stuart kings against an increasingly strident parliament, he shows by arguments from reason, history, and scripture that the sovereign is necessarily a king, whether in name or not. But Filmer's importance is much broader than the question of sovereignty. His patriarchalism shows that legitimacy can only derive from earlier legitimacy and ultimately from the divine, offering a powerful counter-revolutionary philosophical framework with fatal implications for democracy and constitutionalism. Small wonder that liberals felt it necessary to respond to him, and in the introduction to this volume, it is shown that his most famous critic-John Locke-never successfully refuted him.

Genres: Politics

318 pages, Paperback

Published September 29, 2021

About the author

Sir Robert Filmer (c. 1588 – 26 May 1653) was an English political theorist who defended the divine right of kings. His best known work, Patriarcha, published posthumously in 1680, was the target of numerous Whig attempts at rebuttal, including Algernon Sidney's Discourses Concerning Government, James Tyrrell's Patriarcha Non Monarcha and John Locke's Two Treatises of Government. Filmer also wrote critiques of Thomas Hobbes, John Milton, Hugo Grotius and Aristotle.

Reviews

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Filmer successfully argues for the God-given right of the monarch on a national scale as well as in a familial setting.