La famille des classiques

Modern family does not exist any more. Doing its history remains though meaningful for those who seek to understand how this institution has simultaneously offered a repellent, a model (the famous « world we have lost ») and a basis on which contemporary forms of family have emerged. We have inherited a complex institution, where hierarchy, division of labour, gender and generation difference, subsistence, care, and affiliation have dramatically changed. One cannot deny that philosophical doctrines of family are part of its history. Grotius, Hobbes, Locke, Pufendorf, Montesquieu, Rousseau did all consider family as a crucial issue of their philosophy. Each of them tried to incorporate family in his political and social theory. Compared to its importance, studies in history of philosophy have little focused on the topics of family. This books intends to put more light on the subject, and to show how Locke promoted parental equality, how Montesquieu cared about the way civil law treated heiresses. We also read how much Pufendorf differed from Rousseau on the point of conjugal conversation. History of family means denaturalization of family, which stands as one of the main benefits of philosophy.