Database

Last Update: 20.01.2023
Status: Pending peer-review

Justi, Johann Heinrich Gottlob (* 1717.12.25 † 1771.07.21)

Basic Overview Data

Born

1717.12.25, Brücken[In the secondary literature 25. December 1720 is often given as Justi's date of birth. However, he was baptized 28. December 1717. It seems likely that the records according to which he was born on Christmas are correct, but the year was 1717.]

Died

1771.07.21, Küstrin

Confession

Protestant, Lutheran, Catholic[It is a matter of debate whether Justi's appointment to Theresian Academy in Vienna in 1750 was followed by his conversion to Catholic religion.]

Institutional Affiliation

Theresian Knight Academy (Vienna),
University of Göttingen

Keyword Filters

Cameral sciences, history of international relations, Schmaussianism

VIAF:

100239396

GND:

118714333

Important Family Relations:

Father, Georg Heinrich (? - 1720.11.24), excise inspector

Stepfather, Delius, Landcommissar

Stepbrother, Christoph Traugott Delius (1728.xx.xx - 1779.01.21), professor of Bergbaukunst

Daughter, Amalia Holst née Justi (1758.02.10 - 1829.01.06), Writer, intellectual(Amalia Holst is consider as an early feminist. She is the author of Bemerkungen über die Fehler unserer modernen Erziehung 1791 and of Über die Bestimmung des Weibes zu höherer Geistesbildung 1802.)

Canonical URL:

https://naturallawdatabase.thulb.uni-jena.de/item/natlaw_201

Biographical and Intellectual Profile

Biography:

Under Review!

Comment on main natural law works:

Under Review!

Comment on profile’s conception of natural law:

Under Review!

Biographical Data

Academic Data

Studies

... - .../1742, Gymnasium Quedlinburg

1742.10.19 - 1744.07.18, Law, University of Wittenberg[Augustin Leyser (1683-1752)] (According to several studies Justi should also have studied in Jena (under Zincke), Leipzig and Göttingen. There is, however, no evidence for this)

Degrees

1744.07.18, Doctor of law, University of Wittenberg [Augustin Leyser] (Justi defended a thesis called De fuga militae. Leyser was most likely the author of the thesis)

Travels

1757 - 1758, Copenhagen ()

1738\.. - 1740, Netherlands () (Justi could have been in Holland between 1738 and 1740. He refers to have been in Holland in 1740 in his anonymously published book Leben und Character des Grafens Brühl, 1760)

1757\.. - 1758, Sweden () (In his Neue Wahrheiten zum Vortheil der Naturkunde und des gesellschaftlichen Lebens der Menschen (Leipzig 1754–1758), Justi describes his visit to Scania, to Helsingborg. One thing that, according to Justi, proved how lazy the man in the Nordic countries was, was the wildness of nature. Almost all provinces in Sweden, especially Finland, consisted of nothing more than a disordered "Mengel" of lakes, moraine, and some dry soil. According to Justi, the uncultivated land affected the climate. If you had properly controlled rivers and dried lakes, the climate would also have been warmer. For Justi, Germany was an example of such a development)

Teaching

1750\.. - ../1753: Rhetoric (Eloquentia germanica), lecture courses, Theresian Knight Academy (Taught for students of law)

1752\.. - ../1753: Cameral sciences (Commercium und Oeconomia publica), lecture courses, Theresian Knight Academy (Taught for students of law)

1755\.. - ../1757: Cameral sciences (Oeconomische und Cameral-Wissenschaften and Policey-Wissenschaften), lecture courses, University of Göttingen, Faculty of Law

Professional Data

Career

1741 - 1742.07.28, Soldier, Electorate of Saxony, Regiment of Prince Xaver (Soldier in the Saxon army)

1742 - 1745.06.04, Private Secretary, Lieutenant Colonel Wigand Gottlob von Gersdorff

1747 - 1750, Councillor, Duchy of Saxony-Eisenach (Justi acted as a Councillor (Rat, Advocat) to Duchess Anna Sophie von Sachsen-Eisenach 1706-1751)

1750 - 1752, Professor of German eloquence, Theresian Knight Academy (Theresianum)

1752 - 1753, Professor of German eloquence and praxis, Theresian Knight Academy (Theresianum)

1755 - 1757, Director of Police, the Town of Göttingen

1755 - 1757, Royal Mining Official, Hanover

1755 - 1757, Docentus, University of Göttingen, Faculty of Law

1757 - 1758, Inspector for the cultivation of Jutland, the Danish Court (Justi was invited to the Kingdom of Denmark by Count Bernstorff, from whom Justi obtained a commission to inspect the Jutland heath region and to write a proposal for its cultivation. In 1758 Justi was assigned Norwegian superintendent of mines, but he turned this appointment down)

1765 - 1768, Inspectorate of Mines, Glass- and Steelworks (Berghauptmann), Prussia

Titles, Memberships and Other Relevant Roles

1747, Prize essay competition winner, Prussian Academy of Sciences, Berlin (Justi won a prize essay competition with his anti-Wolffian essay on the monads)

1755 - 1757, Member, Academy of Sciences, Göttingen

1755, Mining councillor (Bergrat), Kingdom of Great Britain

1762, Member, Bavarian Academy of Sciences, Munich

Bibliographical Data

Printed Sources

Books:

Abhandlung von den Mitteln die Erkenntniß in den Oeconomischen und Cameral-Wissenschaften dem gemeinen Wesen recht nützlich zu machen; wobey zugleich zu seinen in diesen Wissenschaften auf den [16]ten des Heumonats anzufangenden Vorlesungen ergebenst einladet Johann Heinrich Gottlob von Justi (Göttingen: 1755): Digital version

Der Grundriß einer guten Regierung (Frankfurt and Leipzig: Johann Gottlieb Garbe, 1759): Digital version

Die Natur und das Wesen der Staaten (Berlin, Stettin & Leipzig: Johann Heinrich Rüdiger, 1760): Digital version
- Edition 1771 (Mitau: Steidel und Compagnie): Digital version

Dissertations:

De fuga militae (Wittenberg: 1744), [Praeses: Augustin Leyser, Respondent: Johann Heinrich Gottlob Justi]: Digital version

Manuscript Sources

Correspondence:

Two letters to Johann Christoph Gottsched (1700-1766). The letters are from 1747 and 1751 and printed in Gottsched Briefwechsel

Natural Law Network

Direct Personal Connections:

1755\.., Johann Jakob Schmauss, Göttingen [Colleague at the University of Göttingen]

1755\.., Gottfried Achenwall, Göttingen [Colleague at the University of Göttingen]

1756.06.21, Peter Forsskål, Göttingen [This is the date Justi wrote with "Honoris et amicitiae" to Forsskål's album amicorum a citation from Juvenalis: "Justitia utilibus rectum praeponere suadet." It is a comment on Forsskål's Göttingen dissertation defended 12 June 1756. Justi supported Forsskål's thesis arguing that justice becomes before utility.]

References and Acknowledgement

Profile References

Literature:

Adam, Ulrich: The Political Economy of J.H.G. Justi (Oxford, 2006).

Ahnert, Thomas: "Newtonianism in early Enlightenment Germany, c. 1720 to 1750: Metaphysics and the critique of dogmatic philosophy" in Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 35 (2004), p. 471-491.

Ahnert, Thomas: "Problematische Bindugswirkung: Zum ’Epikureismus’ im Naturrecht der deutschen Frühaufkläring" in Das Naturrecht der Geselligkeit: Anthropologie, Recht und Politik im 18. Jahrhundert, ed. Vanda Fiorillo and Frank Grunert (Berlin, 2009), p. 39-54.

Backhaus Jürgen Georg (ed.): The Beginnings of Political Economy: Johann Heinrich Gottlob von Justi (New York, 2009).

Bödeker, Hans Erich: "Das Staatswissenschaftliche Fächersystem im 18. Jahrhundert" in Wissenschaften im Zeitalter der Aufklärung, ed. Rudolf Vierhaus (Göttingen, 1985), p. 143-162.

Bödeker, Hans Erich and Istvan Hont: "Naturrecht, Politische Ökonomie und Geschichte der Menschheit. Der Diskurs über Politik und Gesellschaft in der fühen Neuzeit" in Naturrecht, Spätaufklärung, Revolution, ed. Otto Dann and Diethelm Klippel (Hamburg, 1995), p. 80-89.

Bollnow, Otto Friedrich: "Die philosophischen Grundlagen der Staats- und Wirtschaftslehren bei J.H.G. Justi" in Finanzarchiv N.F.8 (1941), p. 381-402.

Brückner, Jutta: Staatswissenschaften, Kameralismus und Naturrecht: Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der Politischen Wissenschaft in Deutschland des späten 17. und frühen 18. Jahrhunderts (München, 1977).

Dreitzel, Horst: "Justis Beitrag zur Politisierung der deutschen Aufklärung" in Aufklärung als Politisierung: Politisierung der Aufklärung, ed. Hans Erich Bödeker and Ulrich Hermann (Hamburg, 1987), p. 158-177.

Dreitzel, Horst: "Universal-Kameral-Wissenschaft als politische Theorie. Johann Friedrich von Pfeiffer (1718–1787)" in Aufklärung als praktische Philosophie: Werner Schneiders zum 65. Geburtstag, ed. Frank Grunert and Friedrich Vollhardt (Tübingen, 1998), p. 149-171.

Frensdorff, Ferdinand: "Die Vertretung der ökonomischen Wissenschaften in Göttingen, vornehmlich im 18" in Festschrift zur Feier des hundertfünfzigjährigen Bestehens der Königlichen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen (Berlin, 1901), p. 497-565.

Frensdorff, Ferdinand: Über das Leben und die Schriften des Nationalökonomen J. H. G.von Justi (Göttingen, 1903).

Nokkala, Ere: From Natural Law to Political Economy: J.H.G von Justi on State, Commerce and International Order (Münster, 2019).

Nokkala, Ere & Nicholas B. Miller: Cameralism and the Enlightenment (New York, 2020)

Obert, Marcus: Die naturrechtliche “politische Metaphysik” des Johann Heinrich Gottlob von Justi (1717–1771) (Frankfurt am Main, 1992).

Scattola, Merio: "Das Naturrecht der Triebe, oder das Ende des Naturrechts: Johann Jakob Schmauß und Johann Christian Claproth" in Das Naturrecht der Geselligkeit: Anthropologie, Recht und Politik im 18. Jahrhundert, ed. Vanda Fiorillo and Frank Grunert (Berlin, 2009), p. 231-250.

Schmidt am Busch, Hans-Cristoph: "Cameralism as “Political Metaphysics”: Human Nature, the State and Natural Law in the Thought of Johann Heinrich Gott lob von Justi" in European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, 16 (2009), p. 409–430.

Sources:

Schmauss, Johann Jacob, Neues Systema des Naturrechts (Göttingen, 1754).

Acknowledgement

Profile Author:

Under Review!