In 1660, Pufendorf published Elementa jurisprudentiae universalis (“Elements of Universal Jurisprudence”). This early natural-law work helped set up his later social-contract thinking by treating moral and legal rules as something that could be analyzed with reason, not only with theology.
Pufendorf’s early work helped lead to the creation of a dedicated chair of natural law at the University of Heidelberg, where he taught from 1661 to 1668. This mattered because it signaled that natural law was becoming a university discipline taught in a more “secular,” scholarly setting, not only in religious training.
In 1667, Pufendorf published De statu imperii Germanici (“The Present State of Germany”) under the pseudonym Severinus de Monzambano. The book sharply criticized the constitution of the Holy Roman Empire and drew major controversy, showing how natural-law reasoning could be used to judge real political institutions.
Pufendorf left Heidelberg in 1668 after the disputes surrounding his political writing and its reception. This transition pushed him toward a new academic setting where he would complete his best-known natural-law and social-contract works.
By 1670, Pufendorf held a chair at the University of Lund in Sweden. Lund became the base for his most influential writings, and it provided an institutional platform for spreading a reason-based, more secular natural-law approach across Europe.
In 1672, Pufendorf published De jure naturae et gentium (“On the Law of Nature and Nations”). The book offered a wide-ranging natural-law system that supported social order and state authority by grounding obligation in human life as lived in society, rather than in church doctrine alone.
In 1673, Pufendorf published De officio hominis et civis (“On the Duty of Man and Citizen”), a shorter teaching text based on his 1672 work. It helped spread his account of political obligation and the state by making his arguments usable in classrooms and training future officials and lawyers.
From 1672 to 1674, Pufendorf taught lectures at Lund that commented directly on his major natural-law books. These lectures show how his ideas were transmitted through academic teaching, helping turn “social contract” and natural-law reasoning into a standard part of higher education.
In 1677, Pufendorf moved to Stockholm and was appointed royal historiographer. This marked a shift from university teaching to state service, highlighting how his social-contract and natural-law ideas could connect to practical concerns of governance, legitimacy, and statecraft.
In 1686, Pufendorf collected his polemical replies to critics under the title Eris Scandica (“Scandinavian dispute”). These debates mattered because they forced clearer distinctions between moral duties, legal authority, and religious claims—key issues in secularizing social-contract thought.
In 1687, Pufendorf published De habitu religionis christianae ad vitam civilem (“Of the Nature and Qualification of Religion in Reference to Civil Society”). The book argued for the state’s superiority in civil affairs while still defending freedom of conscience, reinforcing a more secular boundary between political authority and religion.
From 1688, Pufendorf worked in Berlin as court historiographer for the elector of Brandenburg. This final career phase shows his lasting role as a scholar-adviser whose reason-based natural law supported modern state-building and a more secular account of political obligation.
Pufendorf died in Berlin on October 13, 1694. By then, his writings—especially the 1672 and 1673 natural-law works—had helped normalize social-contract thinking grounded in human sociability and reason, making it easier for later Enlightenment theorists to treat political authority as a human construction rather than a purely religious one.
Samuel Pufendorf and the Secularization of Social Contract Thought (1660–1709)