Paolo Slongo
The essay suggests that in the complex logical-conceptual configuration of Book I of the "Esprit des lois" operates a movement of thought very different from the one that is commonly recognized in those interpretation that aims to attribute to Montesquieu a specific political "paradigm". Book I is the mobile foundation of the whole work: the question is not so much to expose a theory of law that support a political doctrine, but rather to point out a dynamics that triggers the research.