Chapter 4 - Inclusions and Exclusions

Summary

Having concentrated in the previous chapter on the foundation of Bodin’s political thought, in this chapter we turn to more specific questions regarding the relationship of politics and oeconomics and their relationship to ethics, and so reconstruct what Bodin was doing with the classical tripartite scheme of active philosophy. We will look closely at the difference between family and state and examine aspects of nature and necessity in Bodin’s thought. Far more than any other thinker, Bodin devoted considerable space to analysing the merits of the natural and the care for daily necessities for the political life. An analysis of Bodin’s understanding of wealth and of the relationship of private and public property leads to an examination of his notion of equality and to his notion of citizenship. Crucial for Bodin’s thought, these topics have not found much attention in scholarship. They are, however, most important for understanding who and what was included in and excluded from Bodin’s Renaissance commonwealth.