Arthur Applbaum (Harvard Kennedy School)
First-Year Seminar 48K | 4 Credits (Fall 2024) | CANVAS SITE
Tuesday, 12:00 PM – 2:30 PM
After Henri of Navarre’s brilliant defeat of a Catholic army at the Battle of Coutras, the presumptive but contested Protestant heir to the French throne spent the night at the chateau of Michel de Montaigne, the great essayist and political advisor. Navarre then baffled expectations by not pressing his military advantage—he instead journeyed to visit Corisande, his mistress and Montaigne’s friend—even though the resistance theory of Navarre’s closest advisor, Philippe du Plessis-Mornay, would have justified a decisive campaign. By withdrawing his army from the field and not further challenging the authority of his cousin, Henri III, Navarre failed to end the Eighth War of Religion, but may thereby have won his crown as Henri IV. Did Montaigne persuade Navarre to withdraw? What was his argument? Was Mornay with Navarre and Montaigne that night? What would Mornay have argued? We will learn about the theories of political legitimacy and justified resistance to authority developed by the persecuted Protestants of the day and trace the influence of their ideas about political obligation and religious conscience on some of the major figures in modern political philosophy, from Thomas Hobbes to Immanuel Kant. Students should be prepared to engage both in historical detective work and philosophical reflection.