The Political Philosophy of James Madison PDF Download

Author: Garrett Ward Sheldon
Publisher: JHU Press
ISBN: 9780801871061
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 324

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Book Description
Tracing the history of Madison's thought to his early education in Protestant theology, Sheldon argues that it was a fear of the potential "tyranny of the majority" over individual rights, along with a firmly Calvinist suspicion of the motives of sinful men, that led him to support a constitution creating a strong central government with power over state laws. In this way, Madison aimed to protect individual liberties and provide checks to "spiteful" human interests and selfish parochial prejudices.

Author: Thomas S. Engeman
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 240

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Book Description
A collection of late 20th-century scholarship devoted to Thomas Jefferson as a politician, writer, philosopher, Christian and economist.

Author: M. Andrew Holowchak
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004339426
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 211

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Book Description
In Jefferson’s Political Philosophy and the Metaphysics of Utopia, M. Andrew Holowchak traces the development of Jeffersonian republicanism as a political philosophy, though it is today seldom seen as a political philosophy, by examining the documents he wrote (e.g., Declaration, First Inaugural Address, and significant letters) and key literature he read. That political philosophy, fundamentally progressive and people-first, was driven by a vision of an “empire of liberty”—a global confederation of republican nations in moral and political partnership and peaceful coexistence—and was to take root in North America. Jefferson's vision influenced his domestic and foreign policies as president and the numerous letters he wrote after his presidency, but never took root there, or anywhere. Was that due to a defect of vision—a view of humans’ capacities and goodness at odds with reality—or were historical forces at play which were antagonistic to the rooting and suckering of Jeffersonian republicanism?

Author: Michael P. Federici
Publisher: JHU Press
ISBN: 1421406608
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 394

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Book Description
America’s first treasury secretary and one of the three authors of the Federalist Papers, Alexander Hamilton stands as one of the nation’s important early statesmen. Michael P. Federici places this Founding Father among the country’s original political philosophers as well. Hamilton remains something of an enigma. Conservatives and liberals both claim him, and in his writings one can find material to support the positions of either camp. Taking a balanced and objective approach, Federici sorts through the written and historical record to reveal Hamilton’s philosophy as the synthetic product of a well-read and pragmatic figure whose intellectual genealogy drew on Classical thinkers such as Cicero and Plutarch, Christian theologians, and Enlightenment philosophers, including Hume and Montesquieu. In evaluating the thought of this republican and would-be empire builder, Federici explains that the apparent contradictions found in the Federalist Papers and other examples of Hamilton’s writings reflect both his practical engagement with debates over the French Revolution, capital expansion, commercialism, and other large issues of his time, and his search for a balance between central authority and federalism in the embryonic American government. This book challenges the view of Hamilton as a monarchist and shows him instead to be a strong advocate of American constitutionalism. Devoted to the whole of Hamilton’s political writing, this accessible and teachable analysis makes clear the enormous influence Hamilton had on the development of American political and economic institutions and policies.

Author: Lorraine Smith Pangle
Publisher: JHU Press
ISBN: 9780801886669
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 300

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Book Description
Franklin's political writings are full of fascinating reflections on human nature, on the character of good leadership, and on why government is such a messy and problematic business. Drawing together threads in Franklin's writings, Lorraine Smith Pangle illuminates his thoughts on citizenship, federalism, constitutional government, the role of civil associations, and religious freedom.

Author: Garrett Ward Sheldon
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 192

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Book Description
Was Thomas Jefferson a Lockean liberal or a classical republican? In The Political Philosophy of Thomas Jefferson, Garrett Ward Sheldon aims to reconcile two opposing camps of an ongoing scholarly debate. Offering a revised account of Jefferson's political theory, Sheldon shows that Jefferson's thought comprised a rich constellation of theoretical traditions--including British liberalism, classical republicanism, Scottish moral philosophy, Christian ethics, and Lockean theory. Examining Jefferson's views on democracy, rights, freedom, and slavery as well as the cultural and economic context of his ideas in the Virginia gentry class, this book not only offers a concise introduction to Jefferson's political philosophy but also makes a thought-provoking contribution to a current historiography controversy.

Author: Luigi Marco Bassani
Publisher: Mercer University Press
ISBN: 0881461865
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 284

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Book Description
Examines the political ideals of Thomas Jefferson, discussing his views on the rights of man and state's rights, and describing the political theory that guided Jefferson's decisions as the nation's third president.

Author: M. Andrew Holowchak
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317660641
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 231

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Book Description
Thomas Jefferson had a profoundly advanced educational vision that went hand in hand with his political philosophy - each of which served the goal of human flourishing. His republicanism marked a break with the conservatism of traditional non-representative governments, characterized by birth and wealth and in neglect of the wants and needs of the people. Instead, Jefferson proposed social reforms which would allow people to express themselves freely, dictate their own course in life, and oversee their elected representatives. His educational vision aimed to instantiate a progressive social climate only dreamed of by utopists such as Thomas More, James Harrington and Louis-Sébastian Mercier. This book offers a critical articulation of the philosophy behind Jefferson’s thoughts on education. Divided into three parts, chapters include an analysis of his views on elementary and higher education, an investigation of education for both the moral-sense and rational faculty, and an examination of education as lifelong learning. Jefferson’s educational rationale was economic, political and philosophical, and his systemic approach to education conveys a systemic, economic approach to living, with strong affinities to Stoicism. Thomas Jefferson’s Philosophy of Education will be key reading for philosophers, historians and postgraduate students of education, the history of education and philosophy.

Author: Jean M. Yarbrough
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 288

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Book Description
Beginning with the Declaration of Independence, this analysis of Thomas Jefferson's moral and political philosophy focuses exclusively on the full range of moral, civic and intellectual virtues that form the American character.

Author: Jack Fruchtman Jr.
Publisher: JHU Press
ISBN: 0801892848
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 225

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Book Description
This concise, insightful study explores the sources and impact of one of the early republic's most influential minds. An Englishman by birth, an American by choice and necessity, Thomas Paine advocated ideas about rights, equality, democracy, and liberty that were far advanced beyond those of his American compatriots. His seminal works, Common Sense and the Rights of Man, were rallying cries for the American and French Revolutions. More than any other eighteenth-century political writer and activist, Paine defies easy categorization. A man of contrasts and contradictions, Paine was as much a believer in the power of reason as he was in a benevolent deity. He was at once liberal and conservative, a Quaker who was not a pacifist, and an inherently gifted writer who was convinced he was always right. Jack Fruchtman Jr. analyzes Paine's radical thought both in the context of his time and as a blueprint for the future development of republican government. His systematic approach identifies the themes of signal importance to Paine's political thought, demonstrating especially how crucial religion and God were to the development and expression of his political ideals.