The End of Moral Philosophy in America
on Apr 6, 2009 in thomas reid reid moral philosophers moral philosophy david hume witherspoon The common sense morality was the perfect prescription for a secular republic in which both Thomas Jefferson and John Witherspoon had to live together. It yielded moral laws without compelling people to embrace protestant Christian theology, but it a...

The American Moral Philosophy
on Apr 6, 2009 in yale thomas clap moral philosophers nathaniel william taylor moral philosophy noah porter Edwarsean revivalism was one way of solving the problem of how to generate and ensure virtue in the new American republic in the 18th century. It was not, however, the only way. The Enlightenment had won too many converts to deism, and there were too...

The Beginning of Political Parties
on Apr 6, 2009 in james madison democrats henry clay democratic party american whigs aaron burr politics political parties thomas jefferson alexander hamilton Nothing in Federal Constitution anticipated the emergence of political parties. James Madison had hoped that one of the chief strengths of the Constitution would be its tendency to break and control the violence of factions. Jefferson, in one of his...

Edwardseanism and the Second Awakening
on Apr 4, 2009 in calvinism jonathan edwards great awakening theology second awakening Jonathan Edwards did not live long to put his theology into full play, but his two disciples, Samuel Hopkins from West Springfield, Massachusetts; and Joseph Bellamy of Bethlehem, Connecticut; they did. What both men generated first was not revival b...

Jonathan Edwards on Free Will
on Apr 3, 2009 in calvinism puritanism jonathan edwards free will A wall of separation between Church and State was not what the righteous Presbyterians and Congregationalists of America had gone into the Revolution for. It became a very good question what they would propose to do about it. The first answer came fr...

Jefferson’s Separation Between Church and State
on Apr 3, 2009 in separation between church and state jonathan edwards thomas jefferson I’ve spent some time writing about Jonathan Edwards. I have to admit that I did live it dangling there, and you would be right to wonder what really happened to him after his self-exile to the Western Massachusetts Indian mission. Well, the answer...

Thomas Jefferson: The Indebted Yeoman Farmer
on Apr 3, 2009 in classical liberalism ideas of the enlightenment jefferson thomas jefferson locke No other figure in American history, except Washington and Lincoln, stands closer to the heart of American national identity than Thomas Jefferson. He was the author of the Declaration of Independence, and in that Declaration he defined the spirit of...

The American Republic of Virtue
on Apr 1, 2009 in begginings of american government republicanism whig party virtue whig jefferson american whigs american liberalism whigs thomas jefferson Looked up from a distance, the success of the American Revolution in throwing off the yoke of British rule must have seemed miraculous. So miraculous, in fact, that forever afterward, the leaders of the revolution, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson...

Hamilton’s New Constitution
on Apr 1, 2009 in power hamilton james madison madison virtue government confederation alexander hamilton A nation of land owning young men might very well make for independence, but also it might very well make for stagnation. What Alexander Hamilton wanted most from life was not stagnation but mobility. Born in 1755 on the West Indian Island of Nevis,...

Benjamin Franklin and the American Philosophy
on Mar 26, 2009 in philadelphia enlightenment in america benjamin franklin scottish enlightenment pennsylvania american science franklin american scientists science Benjamin Franklin was born in Boston, on January 1706. Little more than two years younger than Jonathan Edwards, that may have been the only point on which he was close to Edwards. The youngest son among his father’s 17 children, Franklin was quick...