The Spirit of the Laws
E4821
The Spirit of the Laws is a foundational 1748 political treatise by Montesquieu that systematically analyzes forms of government and famously articulates the doctrine of separation of powers.
All labels observed (3)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| The Spirit of the Laws canonical | 9 |
| De l'esprit des lois | 1 |
| De l’esprit des lois | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T42158 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: The Spirit of the Laws Context triple: [Age of Enlightenment, majorWork, The Spirit of the Laws]
-
A.
A Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America
A Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America is a three-volume political treatise by John Adams that analyzes historical republics to justify and defend the proposed American system of separated powers and mixed government.
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B.
On Human Nature
On Human Nature is a landmark 1978 book by biologist Edward O. Wilson that explores the biological and evolutionary foundations of human behavior and won the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction.
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C.
The Age of Revolution
The Age of Revolution is a historical volume by Winston Churchill that chronicles the political and social upheavals from the late 17th to early 19th centuries in the English-speaking world.
-
D.
Republic of Letters
The Republic of Letters was an informal, transnational community of scholars, writers, and intellectuals who exchanged ideas through correspondence and publications, playing a key role in shaping Enlightenment thought.
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E.
A History of Western Philosophy
A History of Western Philosophy is Bertrand Russell’s comprehensive survey of Western philosophical thought from the pre-Socratics to the early 20th century, combining exposition with critical commentary.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: The Spirit of the Laws Target entity description: The Spirit of the Laws is a foundational 1748 political treatise by Montesquieu that systematically analyzes forms of government and famously articulates the doctrine of separation of powers.
-
A.
A Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America
A Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America is a three-volume political treatise by John Adams that analyzes historical republics to justify and defend the proposed American system of separated powers and mixed government.
-
B.
On Human Nature
On Human Nature is a landmark 1978 book by biologist Edward O. Wilson that explores the biological and evolutionary foundations of human behavior and won the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction.
-
C.
The Age of Revolution
The Age of Revolution is a historical volume by Winston Churchill that chronicles the political and social upheavals from the late 17th to early 19th centuries in the English-speaking world.
-
D.
Republic of Letters
The Republic of Letters was an informal, transnational community of scholars, writers, and intellectuals who exchanged ideas through correspondence and publications, playing a key role in shaping Enlightenment thought.
-
E.
A History of Western Philosophy
A History of Western Philosophy is Bertrand Russell’s comprehensive survey of Western philosophical thought from the pre-Socratics to the early 20th century, combining exposition with critical commentary.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (49)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
book
ⓘ
non-fiction work ⓘ political treatise ⓘ |
| author | Montesquieu ⓘ |
| centuryOfPublication | 18th century ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin | France ⓘ |
| famousFor |
analysis of different forms of government
ⓘ
articulation of the doctrine of separation of powers ⓘ |
| field |
jurisprudence
ⓘ
political science ⓘ |
| genre |
constitutional theory
ⓘ
legal theory ⓘ political philosophy ⓘ |
| hasTranslation |
English
ⓘ
German ⓘ Italian ⓘ Spanish ⓘ many world languages ⓘ |
| historicalPeriod | Age of Enlightenment ⓘ |
| influenced |
Enlightenment political philosophy
ⓘ
French Revolution political thought ⓘ United States Constitution ⓘ modern liberal constitutionalism ⓘ theory of checks and balances ⓘ |
| language | French ⓘ |
| mainTopic |
climate and society
ⓘ
comparative politics ⓘ constitutionalism ⓘ despotism ⓘ forms of government ⓘ laws and institutions ⓘ monarchy ⓘ political liberty ⓘ republican government ⓘ rule of law ⓘ separation of powers ⓘ slavery ⓘ |
| movement | Enlightenment ⓘ |
| numberOfBooks | 31 ⓘ |
| opposes |
absolute monarchy
ⓘ
slavery ⓘ |
| originalTitle |
The Spirit of the Laws
self-linksurface differs
ⓘ
surface form:
De l’esprit des lois
|
| philosophicalStance |
anti-despotism
ⓘ
moderate constitutionalism ⓘ |
| proposes | division of political power into legislative, executive, and judicial branches ⓘ |
| publicationPlace | Geneva ⓘ |
| publicationYear | 1748 ⓘ |
| publisher | Barillot & Fils ⓘ |
| structure | divided into books and chapters ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: The Spirit of the Laws Description of subject: The Spirit of the Laws is a foundational 1748 political treatise by Montesquieu that systematically analyzes forms of government and famously articulates the doctrine of separation of powers.
Referenced by (11)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
this entity surface form:
De l’esprit des lois
this entity surface form:
De l'esprit des lois
subject surface form:
Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu
Considerations on the Causes of the Greatness of the Romans and their Decline
→
relatedWorkByAuthor
→
The Spirit of the Laws
ⓘ