Desacralization of the Political: from Scholasticism to Modernity?

Abstract

The article analyzes the influence of the political thought of late scholasticism on the formation of the secular political regime of Modernity. The author shows two research approaches that differently assess the influence of medieval poli­tical doctrines on the formation of modern political culture. Representatives of the first approach (E. Gilson, A. Gewirth, Q. Skinner) tend to see in the works of such authors as Dante, Marsilius of Padua and Ockham, if not the direct ori­gins of ideas about a secular political regime, then at least conceptual models that allowed such ideas to appear. Representatives of the second approach (A. Black, J. Canning, A. Brett, B. Klyuchko, Yu. Sokolov), appealing to the ana­chronism of reading scholastic texts through the prism of modern conceptualism, either directly deny such influence or propose to refer to it with major limita­tions. To clarify this issue, the author turns to the analysis of the political ontol­ogy of Dante, Marsilius of Padua and Ockham. Innovations that were proposed by these authors in the matter of understanding the purpose, source and subject of political existence are explicated. Based on the analysis, it is concluded that in late scholasticism a view of political reality was proposed, which made it pos­sible to see in it an immanent, self-valuable nature. Accordingly, the statement about the connection between the political thought of late scholasticism and modern political a priori is not unfounded.