Filosofia Política na Escola de Salamanca

The Political Philosophy of the Salamanca School

Abstract

First, we analyse the question of the distinction between reason and faith, nature and grace, temporal power and spiritual power, in order to delimit the specific scope of the two powers and to highlight the autonomy of natural reason as the foundation of civil power. In the second point, the question of the origin, nature and purpose of civil power is raised, showing the reconciliation of the Pauline thesis of its divine origin with the scholastic thesis of the popular origin of power, transversal to the authors of this school, stressing its ethical foundation. This ethical foundation opens the way, in the third point, to the analysis of the right of resistance, stressing that the power of kings is supreme in its sphere, but not absolute, since it is limited by natural law and the jus gentium. Given the presence of Iberian kingdoms in the New World, we must then, in a fourth moment, analyse the question of the legitimacy of indigenous sovereignty and the universality of the right to jurisdiction and self-determination. Finally, we will show the contribution of this school to the concept of the universal community.