Colloquial representations link the establishment of the political-legal category of sovereignty with the activity of Jean Bodin. The very notion itself appeared earlier, though. The paper, which provides exclusively an initial framework of the problem area, recollects how the shaping of the understanding of sovereignty was progressing in the Middle Ages: from the appearance of the word superanus, through the concept of dispersed sovereignty represented by Philip de Beaumanoir, into the medieval sources of formation of J. Bodin’s monistic concept. The author also points to the differences in the Weltanschauung, which characterized that epoch in relation to modern times. Moreover, he wonders which of the meanings of the notion of sovereignty is better adjusted to fit contemporary times: primeval, the pluralistic framework proposed by Philip de Beaumanoir, which is characterized by acknowledgement of dispersion of competence and network-like system of power, or maybe the framework offered by Bodin and Hobbes, one that is modern, monistic, exclusivism-oriented and based on the law of excluded centre. In conclusion, the author expresses the conviction that in view of the need to protect natural human rights, the concept of dispersed sovereignty should be returned to.
This paper analyzes the XIII century’s doctrine of double truth attributed to a Master of the Faculty of Arts of the University of Paris, Siger of Brabant. We will not, however, concentrate on determining if he was the authentic author of the duplex veritas; instead, our interpretation will focus on the importance of this doctrine as the source of a complex process of secularization that would end with separating faith from reason, theology from philosophy and from a socio-political perspective, the spiritual power from the temporal one.
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