Abstract
Although the concept of pirates as hostes humani generis appears to be
axiomatic, it is argued in this chapter that piracy elicited more ambiguous
responses from philosophers and lawyers in late seventeenth-century
Britain. Pirates were merely one among a pantheon of archetypal enemies
of good order. By examining references to piracy in the work of the English
political philosopher John Locke in particular, it is argued here that pirates
vied with tyrants for the title of “common enemy of all humankind.”
Locke’s prevarications were mirrored by continuing doubts and legal
debates about who the hostis humani generis really was.
Publisher
Amsterdam University Press