How are so many impassioned modern-day commentators against slavery the heirs of Taney and Thoreau? (See previous post to see the impact of Kant on Taney and the South.)
Answer: Start at "Perfect happiness" and read to the end of the paragraph.
Showing posts with label happiness. Show all posts
Showing posts with label happiness. Show all posts
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
p. 18 The Conservative Foundation of the Liberal Order, Mahoney
What did Tocqueville say that the despotic "schoolmaster state" wanted to spare us?
Answer: T. said the schoolmaster state would enervate the human soul and destroy the capacity for individual initiative and moral judgement.
"Carried to its logical conclusion, a tutelary state would deprive democratic man of his very humanity, sparing him 'the trouble of thinking and the pain of living.'"
Answer: T. said the schoolmaster state would enervate the human soul and destroy the capacity for individual initiative and moral judgement.
"Carried to its logical conclusion, a tutelary state would deprive democratic man of his very humanity, sparing him 'the trouble of thinking and the pain of living.'"
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
p. 15-16 The Conservative Foundation of the Liberal Order, Mahoney
Why does Mahoney say that Tocqueville "belongs to an altogether different moral and political universe" than Locke and Hobbes?
(For Hobbes and Locke, human freedom and equality comes from a speculative, pre-political state of nature.)
The third chapter of Tocqueville's The Old Regime and the Revolution is titled "How the French Wanted Reforms before They Wanted Freedoms." In that chapter T. warns that "whoever seeks for anything from freedom but itself is made for slavery." Compare to 2 Peter 2:19.
This is the crux of preaching freedom "because it brings you wealth," or "because it reduces government oppression," or "because _____." Tocqueville's point is that freedom is a goal, and not a means to some other end. To treat freedom as a means to these ends is materialism, not liberty. Liberty = virtue.
See Luther's On Christian Freedom. Luther said that freedom from the Law is not autonomy from the law, but rather freedom from the temptation of sin made clear in the Law, in overwhelming preference for Christ. This is how Luther understood freedom = virtue. This is also much closer to Tocqueville who saw the importance of the church in American freedom that restrained it from a purely self-radicalizing freedom that only sought materialistic ends and the complete autonomy of the individual.
(For Hobbes and Locke, human freedom and equality comes from a speculative, pre-political state of nature.)
The third chapter of Tocqueville's The Old Regime and the Revolution is titled "How the French Wanted Reforms before They Wanted Freedoms." In that chapter T. warns that "whoever seeks for anything from freedom but itself is made for slavery." Compare to 2 Peter 2:19.
This is the crux of preaching freedom "because it brings you wealth," or "because it reduces government oppression," or "because _____." Tocqueville's point is that freedom is a goal, and not a means to some other end. To treat freedom as a means to these ends is materialism, not liberty. Liberty = virtue.
See Luther's On Christian Freedom. Luther said that freedom from the Law is not autonomy from the law, but rather freedom from the temptation of sin made clear in the Law, in overwhelming preference for Christ. This is how Luther understood freedom = virtue. This is also much closer to Tocqueville who saw the importance of the church in American freedom that restrained it from a purely self-radicalizing freedom that only sought materialistic ends and the complete autonomy of the individual.
Saturday, August 7, 2010
p. 27 A New Birth of Freedom, Jaffa
What did Jefferson mean by happiness?
Relevant Passage: But the "public happiness" of which Jefferson speaks in the Summary View is an expression of the social nature of these same individuals. Individual rights become valuable only insofar as they result in a good society-a society in which man's moral and intellectual virtues can find their fullest measure of opportunity.
Relevant Passage: But the "public happiness" of which Jefferson speaks in the Summary View is an expression of the social nature of these same individuals. Individual rights become valuable only insofar as they result in a good society-a society in which man's moral and intellectual virtues can find their fullest measure of opportunity.
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