ABSTRACT
This chapter presents an overview of some of the major figures and debates in seventeenth century political philosophy. It focuses primarily on four of the most significant, most systematic, and most philosophical proponents of seventeenth century social contract theory - Hugo Grotius, Thomas Hobbes, Samuel Pufendorf, and John Locke. The questions of political authority and obligation come to the forefront in particular because of the waning of notions of God-given authority and the waxing of secular, or at least nondenominational, theories of politics. Francisco Suarez, an important figure in the tradition of Catholic resistance theory, invoked the divine origins of political power in order to validate – and indeed encourage – active resistance to particular Protestant kings. Political authority and obligation are conceived from the "bottom up", as opposed to the "top-down" approach of divine right. The political thought of Baruch Spinoza shares many key features of social contract theory.
