Susan Richter

German "Minor" Thinkers?: The Perception of Moser's and Justi's Works in an Enlightened European Context

German theoreticians of administration in the eighteenth century were not acknowledged in the English or French discourse on administrative reform because they published in German, and thus their approaches to cameralism went unnoticed in England and France. The situation was quite different for the European periphery: Works by Johann Heinrich Gottlob Justi and Friedrich Carl von Moser were widely read in Russia because German was its second official language and in Spain because of the growing interest in administration (and in the education of administrative personnel) in the territories of the Holy Roman Empire. Thanks to government-initiated translations, cameralism experienced a widely acclaimed reception.

Pater patriae sinensis. The Discovery of Patriarchal Rule in China and Its Significance for German Theories of State in the Eighteenth Century

In his Oratio de Sinarum philosophia practica, delivered at the University of Halle’s festive assembly on 12 June 1721, Christian Wolff (1679–1754) praised the “Weisheit der Chinesen seit den altesten Zeiten und ihre geradezu auserordentliche Klugheit bei der Verwaltung des Staates”. (Wolff 1985 [1726]: 13) (Wisdom of the Chinese since the earliest times and their extraordinary prudence in administering the state). He ascribed this “extraordinary prudence” of the Chinese “in administering the state” primarily to their concept of rule: “Die alten Kaiser und Konige der Chinesen waren namlich zugleich Philosophen: Was ist also daran verwunderlich, dass—gemas dem Satz Platons—der Staat gluckselig war, wo die Philosophen herrschten und die Konige philosophieren?” (Ibid.; Ho 1962; Lach 1953; Larrimore 2000). (The ancient Chinese kings and emperors were also philosophers: therefore it is not amazing that—according to Plato’s phrase—it is a blissful state wherein philosophers rule and kings practise philosophy.)