Sunday, May 5, 2013

Thomas Jefferson's Philosophy

A man's philosophy is his fundamentals. When he has integrity, his concretes, i.e. his decisions, match his fundamentals. When a man has no philosophy, his actions or inactions are based on whatever.

Abraham Lincoln said, "The principles of Jefferson are the definitions & axioms of free society.” [articles

Here is a comprehensive, easy-to-understand presentation of the branches of philosophy: http://www.importanceofphilosophy.com/FiveBranchesMain.html

Axioms are under the first branch, Metaphysics.
http://www.importanceofphilosophy.com/Metaphysics_Main.html

Here is a kid-friendly explanation of philosophy [fb note]:

Picture a five-storey building. The fourth floor is politics, where how man should treat other men is determined. Politics, the fourth branch of philosophy, defines the principles of a proper social system. The politics floor rests on the third floor, ethics or morality, the code of values to guide man’s choices and actions in determining the purpose and the course of his life. The third floor rests on the second floor, epistemology, which is also called the reason-and-logic floor. In turn, the reason-and-logic floor rests on the first floor and the building’s foundations: metaphysics - the study of existence, nature, metaphysical reality.

A political principle that does not rest on ethics is like the fourth floor of a building floating on air. Ethics or a morality code without an epistemological and metaphysical base is like a table with no legs. The proper code of values is established by means of reason in accordance with logic and in consonance with man’s nature.


Metaphysics    - REALITY
Epistemology  - REASON
Ethics             - EACH INDIVIDUAL's PURSUIT of HAPPINESS
Politics           - INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS and REPUBLICANISM
 
METAPHYSICS QUOTES:
 

"The principles on which we engaged, of which the charter of our independence is the record, were sanctioned by the laws of our being… Man [is] a rational animal, endowed by nature with rights… A free people [claim] their rights as derived from the laws of nature…”  

"Under the law of nature, all men are born free; every one comes into the world with a right to his own person, which includes the liberty of moving and using it at his own will. This is what is called personal liberty, and is given him by the Author of nature, because necessary for his own sustenance." -


“It is not only vain, but wicked, in a legislator to frame laws in opposition to the laws of nature, and to arm them with the terrors of death. This is truly creating crimes in order to punish them. The law of nature impels every one to escape from confinement; it should not, therefore, be subjected to punishment.”

EPISTEMOLOGY QUOTES:
 

"Shake off all the fears & servile prejudices, under w/c weak minds are servilely crouched. Fix reason firmly in her seat, & call to her tribunal every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blindfolded fear…. It is an insult to our citizens to question whether they are rational beings or not, and blasphemy against religion to suppose it cannot stand the test of truth and reason.”

"Your own reason is the only oracle given you by heaven…. Man once surrendering his reason, has no remaining guard against absurdities the most monstrous, and like a ship without rudder, is the sport of every wind."

“I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.”

ETHICS-POLITICS QUOTES:

"We hold these truths to be sacred & undeniable;
That all men are created equal & independent,
That from that equal creation
They derive rights inherent & inalienable,
Among which are the preservation of
Life, & liberty, & the pursuit of happiness
;
That to secure these ends,
Governments are instituted among men,
Deriving their just powers
From the consent of the governed..."

ETHICS QUOTE:

"If we are made in some degree for others, yet in a greater are we made for ourselves. It were contrary to feeling and indeed ridiculous to suppose that a man had less rights in himself than one of his neighbors, or all of them put together. This would be slavery, and not that liberty which the bill of rights has made inviolable, and for the preservation of which our government has been charged." - Thomas Jefferson to James Monroe, 1782. ME 4:196, Papers 6:185

POLITICS QUOTES:
 

"Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add 'within the limits of the law' because law is often but the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual."

“That there exists a right independent of force; that a RIGHT to PROPERTY is FOUNDED in our NATURAL WANTS, in the means with which we are endowed to satisfy these wants, and the right to what we acquire by those means without violating the similar rights of other sensible beings; that NO ONE HAS A RIGHT TO OBSTRUCT ANOTHER exercising his faculties innocently for the relief of sensibilities made a part of his nature; that justice is the fundamental law of society; that the majority, oppressing an individual, is guilty of a crime, abuses its strength, and by acting on the law of the strongest, breaks up the foundations of society; that action by the citizens in person, in affairs within their reach and competence, and in all others by representatives chosen immediately and removable by themselves constitutes the essence of a republic...” - http://www.britannica.com/presidents/article-9116915

A JEFFERSONIAN adheres to the philosophy of Thomas Jefferson.


"... But soberly, it is now no child's play to save the principles of Jefferson from total overthrow in this nation. One would state with great confidence that he could convince any sane child that the simpler propositions of Euclid are true, but nevertheless he would fail, utterly, with one who should deny the definitions and axioms. The principles of Jefferson are the definitions and axioms of free society..." - LINCOLN'S TRIBUTE TO JEFFERSON

Article: Purveyor of Truth (Part 1) – Definitions: Guardians of Rationality

 




67 comments:

  1. Jefferson was pro individual rights. Individuals who form corporations do not lose rights, since rights are INALIENABLE. Jefferson said individuals can do anything that does not violate the rights of others; hence individuals can form corporations.

    "The first principle of association: the guarantee to every one of a free exercise of his industry and the fruits acquired by it." - TJ

    “Agriculture, manufactures, commerce and navigation, the four pillars of our prosperity, are the most thriving when left most free to individual enterprise.” - TJ

    "What is true of every member of the society, individually, is true of them all collectively; since the rights of the whole can be no more than the sum of the rights of the individuals.... It is strangely absurd to suppose that a million of human beings, collected together, are not under the same moral laws which bind each of them separately.”

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  2. Based on the linked document, I searched corporations, and there are two matches. The first is about corporations under a monarchy, and the second is about GOVERNMENT corporations, i.e., those created by Congress, e.g. the FEDERAL RESERVE.

    http://www.constitution.org/tj/jeff01.txt

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  3. This explains the rationale for the wall of separation.

    https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10201281697348441&set=a.1163192003954.24940.1352479353&type=1&theater

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  4. Jefferson was for REALITY and FREEDOM. A corporation is a BUSINESS composed of an individual or two individuals or a group of individuals. When individuals form a business or when they associate, they do not lose any of their rights.

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  5. In freedom, people are free to form associations, like corporations, and other people are free to deal with them or not. There are only two types of evil greed: greed for coercive power and greed for the unearned. The successful and the affluent have rights equal to those of other men.

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  6. The proposition that corporations are not people renders investors RIGHTLESS. Those who recognize their ESSENCE, the HUMAN component, deem corporations as people. That is, RIGHTS-RESPECTERS deem corporations as people.

    Individuals need property in order to live a life proper to human beings. Thomas Jefferson said, "A right to property is founded in our natural wants..." Social beings TRADE. Some go into business; some form corporations and proclaim to the world that their corporate liabilities are limited to their investments in each particular corporation. In freedom, people are free not to patronize corporations.

    The ESSENCE of businesses, whether sole proprietorships, partnerships, or corporations, are the HUMANS THAT OWN & OPERATE THEM, i.e. the investors, managers, & other employees, not the non-human assets like buildings, equipment, or patents.

    When one buys a corporation, one buys the non-human assets of the corporation, and OWNERSHIP changes. The OWNER changes. The seller-owner and the buyer-new-owner are PEOPLE.

    What is the objective of those who say corporations are not people? To deny the investors/employees rights - to be able to strangle them - to loot them - to economically cannibalize them.

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  7. First, ONE person can form a corporation.

    http://www.businessweek.com/stories/2007-11-07/setting-up-a-one-person-corporationbusinessweek-business-news-stock-market-and-financial-advice

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  8. Jefferson was/is/will-always-be for PERFECT freedom.

    "Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add 'within the limits of the law' because law is often but the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual." - Thomas Jefferson

    Repeat: UNOBSTRUCTED action [limited only by the equal rights of others]

    "I think all the world would gain by setting commerce at perfect liberty." - Thomas Jefferson

    Repeat: PERFECT LIBERTY

    “A wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government.” - Thomas Jefferson

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  9. Banks were FORCED to take TARP. They were forced to PAY INTEREST on funds they did not need nor want.

    http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2009/05/15/first_nine_banks_were_forced_to_take_bailouts/

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  10. People should be free to listen to whomever they want.

    In freedom, this is applicable to the entire country: "This institution will be based on the illimitable freedom of the human mind. For here we are not afraid to follow truth wherever it may lead, nor to tolerate any error so long as reason is left free to combat it."

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  11. Jefferson did not hold contradictions. The anti freedom resort to fabricating Jefferson quotes against private corporations.

    In his autobiography, Jefferson talked AGAINST corporations established by a monarchy and by states. Private corporations are not included.

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  12. Logic is non-contradictory identification within the FULL context of one's knowledge.

    Those who drop contexts are DISHONEST.

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  13. Thomas Jefferson stated the essence of a Republic: “That there exists a right independent of force; that a RIGHT to PROPERTY is FOUNDED in our NATURAL WANTS, in the means with which we are endowed to satisfy these wants, and the right to what we acquire by those means without violating the similar rights of other sensible beings; that NO ONE HAS A RIGHT TO OBSTRUCT ANOTHER exercising his faculties innocently for the relief of sensibilities made a part of his nature; that justice is the fundamental law of society; that the majority, oppressing an individual, is guilty of a crime, abuses its strength, and by acting on the law of the strongest, breaks up the foundations of society; that action by the citizens in person, in affairs within their reach and competence, and in all others by representatives chosen immediately and removable by themselves constitutes the essence of a republic...”

    http://jeffersonianclub.blogspot.com/2013/05/thomas-jeffersons-philosophy.html

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  14. More Quotes From
    Thomas Paine (28)

    Additional Sources
    Common Sense (1776)Common Sense (1778)Common Sense (1777)"Conclusion" The Rights of Man (1791)"Examination of the Old Testament" The Age of Reason (1794)

    Related Subjects
    faith (12) truth (12) passion (10) God (9) religion (4) science (4) philosophical (4) human nature (4) superstition (3) soul (3)




    "To argue with a man who has renounced the use and authority of reason, and whose philosophy consists in holding humanity in contempt, is like administering medicine to the dead, or endeavoring to convert an atheist by scripture." - Thomas Paine

    Read more at http://quotes.dictionary.com/to_argue_with_a_man_who_has_renounced#h2H5LgoVkFCM5tfA.99

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  15. To preserve freedom, we must defend the truth about Thomas Jefferson:

    "But soberly, it is now no child's play to save the principles of Jefferson from total overthrow in this nation. One would state with great confidence that he could convince any sane child that the simpler propositions of Euclid are true, but nevertheless he would fail, utterly, with one who should deny the definitions and axioms.

    The principles of Jefferson are the definitions and axioms of free society and yet they are denied and evaded, with no small show of success. One dashingly calls them "glittering generalities." Another bluntly calls them "self-evident lies" and others insidiously argue that they apply to "superior races." These expressions, differing in form, are identical in object and effect -- the supplanting the principles of free government, and restoring those of classification, caste, and legitimacy. They would delight a convocation of crowned heads plotting against the people. They are the vanguard, the miners and sappers of returning despotism. We must repulse them, or they will subjugate us. This is a world of compensation; and he who would be no slave must consent to have no slave. Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves, and, under a just God, cannot long retain it. All honor to Jefferson -- to the man, who in the concrete pressure of a struggle for national independence by a single people, had the coolness, forecast, and sagacity to introduce into a merely revolutionary document an abstract truth, applicable to all men and all times, and so embalm it there that to-day and in all coming days it shall be a rebuke and a stumbling-block to the very harbingers of reappearing tyranny and oppression."

    http://www.kingsbenchletter.com/library/lincoln-tribute/

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  16. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  17. "It seems to be the law of our general nature, in spite of individual exceptions; and experience declares that man is the only animal which devours his own kind, for I can apply no milder term TO THE GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE, and to the general prey of the rich on the poor."

    Longer quote: "I am convinced that those societies (as the Indians) which live without government enjoy in their general mass an infinitely greater degree of happiness than those who live under European governments. Among the former, public opinion is in the place of law, and restrains morals as powerfully as laws ever did any where. Among the latter, under pretence of governing they have divided their nations into two classes, wolves and sheep. I do not exaggerate. This is a true picture of Europe. Cherish therefore the spirit of our people, and keep alive their attention. Do not be too severe upon their errors, but reclaim them by enlightening them. If once they become inattentive to the public affairs, you and I, and Congress, and Assemblies, judges and governors shall all become wolves. It seems to be the law of our general nature, in spite of individual exceptions; and experience declares that man is the only animal which devours his own kind, for I can apply no milder term to the governments of Europe, and to the general prey of the rich on the poor."

    Full context: http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/amendI_speechs8.html

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  18. I hope this is good - A TJ Education -

    http://www.amazon.com/dp/1615399917/ref=tsm_1_fb_lk

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  19. Government is much more than force. It holds a MONOPOLY on legal coercive power. Those who DISHONESTLY evade this, advocate for a government in bed with their religion, with charity, with business, with indoctrination, with voodoo science, with the bedroom, with the uterus, etc.

    The support and sanction of coercion is the MARK of EVIL.

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  20. The Thomas Jefferson fb page, where the admin is named Frank, is anti separation of church and state. My first experience of this tactic is with the Thomas Jefferson Encyclopedia website, which malevolently lies about Jefferson.

    The ANTI FREEDOM, like Frank, infiltrate from within. In his recent push for theocracy, Frank posted a theocratic quote, and when I asked him if he is anti separation of church and state, he included in his answer a shameless lie about the UVA.

    This is the truth:

    "The UVA is the 1st educational institution to offer astronomy, botany, & philosophy. Its School of Engineering & Applied Science was the 1st engineering school in the US to be part of a comprehensive university. In the UVA, Jefferson implemented his vision that education shd be completely separate from religious doctrine.

    "An even more controversial direction was taken for the new university based on a daring vision that higher education should be completely separated from religious doctrine. One of the largest construction projects in North America up to that time, the new Grounds were centered upon a library (then housed in the Rotunda) rather than a church—further distinguishing it from peer universities of the United States, most of which were still primarily functioning as seminaries for one particular religion or another.[14] Jefferson even went so far as to ban the teaching of Theology altogether. In a letter to Thomas Cooper in October 1814, Jefferson stated, "a professorship of theology should have no place in our institution" and, true to form, the University has never had a Divinity school or department; it was established independent of any religious sect. Replacing the then-standard specialization in Religion, the University undertook groundbreaking specializations in scientific subjects such as Astronomy and Botany. (However, today UVA does maintain a strong Religious Studies department and a non-denominational chapel, notably absent from Jefferson's original plans, was constructed in 1890 near the Rotunda.)"

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Virginia

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  21. Thomas Jefferson principles are consistent. His principles on freedom are applicable universally, to all fronts, to all humans and all times.

    Jefferson was/is/will-always-be for PERFECT freedom.

    "Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add 'within the limits of the law' because law is often but the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual." - Thomas Jefferson

    Repeat: UNOBSTRUCTED action [limited only by the equal rights of others]

    "I think all the world would gain by setting commerce at perfect liberty." - Thomas Jefferson

    Repeat: PERFECT LIBERTY

    “A wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government.” - Thomas Jefferson

    “No man has a natural right to commit aggression on the equal rights of another, and this is all from which the laws ought to restrain him." - Thomas Jefferson

    http://jeffersonianclub.blogspot.com/2013/05/thomas-jeffersons-philosophy.html

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  22. Jefferson’s “original Rough draught” of the Declaration of Independence | The Papers of Thomas...

    http://jeffersonpapers.princeton.edu/selected-documents/jefferson%E2%80%99s-%E2%80%9Coriginal-rough-draught%E2%80%9D-declaration-independence-0

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  23. http://www.history.com/topics/july-4th

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  24. http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/

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  25. Abe Lincoln Address in Independence Hall
    Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, February 22, 1861

    http://www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/lincoln/speeches/philadel.htm

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  26. Calvin Coolidge on the DoI: http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=408

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  27. Thomas Jefferson would not pay a cent in tribute: It is "lastly our determination to prefer war in all cases to tribute under any form, and to any people whatever."

    http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/jefferson_papers/mtjprece.html

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  28. http://www.constitution.org/mon/tj-bank.htm

    "It would reduce the whole [Constitution] to a single phrase, that of instituting a Congress with power to do whatever would be for the good of the United States; and, as they would be the sole judges of the good or evil, it would be also a power to do whatever evil they please...."

    http://www.pasleybrothers.com/mocourses/texts/Jefferson_on_BUS.htm

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  29. "We have more machinery of government than is necessary, too many parasites living on the labor of the industrious." - Thomas Jefferson

    http://www.let.rug.nl/usa/presidents/thomas-jefferson/letters-of-thomas-jefferson/jefl279.php

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  30. "The State of Jefferson is a proposed U.S. state that would span the contiguous and mostly rural area of Southern Oregon and Northern California, where several attempts to secede from Oregon and California, respectively, have taken place in order to gain own statehood."

    Excellent!

    https://www.facebook.com/StateofJeffersonParty

    http://www.siskiyoudaily.com/article/20130814/NEWS/130819895

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  31. Declaration of Independence text - http://abcnews.go.com/US/fourth_july/full-text-declaration-independence/story?id=13976396

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  32. "Freedom [is] the first-born daughter of science." --Thomas Jefferson to Francois. D'Ivernois, 1795. ME 9:297. "Light and liberty go together." - Thomas Jefferson

    https://ww2.faulkner.edu/admin/websites/jfarrell/Jefferson%20Quotations.pdf

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  33. "It is never to be expected in a revolution that every man is to change his opinion at the same moment. There never yet was any truth or any principle so irresistibly obvious that all men believed it at once. Time and reason must cooperate with each other to the final establishment of any principle; and therefore those who may happen to be first convinced have not a right to persecute others, on whom conviction operates more slowly. The moral principle of revolutions is to instruct, not to destroy." — Thomas Paine


    http://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/ecco/004809392.0001.000/1:2?rgn=div1;view=fulltext

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  34. http://faculty.cua.edu/pennington/Canon%20Law/JeffersonRights.htm

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  35. Jefferson And Madison Opposed Government-Sponsored Prayer Proclamations

    https://www.au.org/files/images/page_photos/jefferson-and-madison-on.pdf

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  36. Washington & Lincoln both declared Thanksgiving Day. Whereas, Jefferson declared, "I consider the gov't of the US as interdicted by the Constitution from intermeddling w/ religious institutions, their doctrines, discipline, or
    exercises…. Certainly no power to prescribe any religious exercise, or to assume
    authority in religious discipline, has been delegated to the general government...

    https://www.au.org/files/images/page_photos/jefferson-and-madison-on.pdf"

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  37. http://www.godlessinamerica.com/Aviolationbyprayer.html

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  38. "We have more machinery of government than is necessary, too many parasites living on the labor of the industrious. I believe it might be much simplified to the relief of those who maintain it." - Thomas Jefferson

    http://www.let.rug.nl/usa/presidents/thomas-jefferson/letters-of-thomas-jefferson/jefl279.php

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  39. There is one big difference between Rand's Objectivism and Jeffersonianism. Rand held that Immanel Kant, the proponent of categorical imperatives, is the most evil man who ever lived, yet, by her definition, Objectivism has an atheistic imperative.

    Whereas, Jefferson held that man and his mind must be completely free.

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  40. The US is under a bipartisan dictatorship because many lie about Jefferson. Many Conservatives spurn Jefferson's explanations about Rights and the Constitution, and instead go for the interpretations of Palin, Santorum, and West.

    https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=614899895233917&set=a.564011160322791.1073741832.100373710019874&type=1&theater

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  41. In keeping with Individual Rights, that each person owns and is responsible for his own life, it should be in all cases that government, which is force, is out of religion, religion-based values, etc. because forcing rights respecters is tyrannical.

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  42. Thomas Jefferson on egoism: "Self-interest, or rather self-love, or egoism, has been more plausibly substituted as the basis of morality. But I consider our relations with others as constituting the boundaries of morality. With ourselves, we stand on the ground of identity, not of relation, which last, requiring two subjects, excludes self-love confined to a single one. To ourselves, in strict language, we can owe no duties, obligation requiring also two parties. Self-love, therefore, is no part of morality. Indeed, it is exactly its counterpart."

    http://famguardian.org/Subjects/Politics/ThomasJefferson/jeff0200.htm

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  43. Thomas Jefferson on Art: "The entertainments of fiction are useful as well as pleasant... Everything is useful which contributes to fix us in the principles and practice of virtue. When any signal act of charity or of gratitude, for instance, is presented either to our sight or imagination, we are deeply impressed with its beauty and feel a strong desire in ourselves of doing charitable and grateful acts also. On the contrary, when we see or read of any atrocious deed, we are disgusted with its deformity and conceive an abhorrence of vice. Now every emotion of this kind is an exercise of our virtuous dispositions; and dispositions of the mind, like limbs of the body, acquire strength by exercise. But exercise produces habit, and in the instance of which we speak, the exercise being of the moral feelings, produces a habit of thinking and acting virtuously."

    "Considering history as a moral exercise, her lessons would be too infrequent if confined to real life. Of those recorded by historians few incidents have been attended with such circumstances as to excite in any high degree this sympathetic emotion of virtue. We are, therefore, wisely framed to be as warmly interested for a fictitious as for a real personage. The spacious field of imagination is thus laid open to our use, and lessons may be formed to illustrate and carry home to the heart every moral rule of life. Thus a lively and lasting sense of filial duty is more effectually impressed on the mind of a son or daughter by reading King Lear, than by all the dry volumes of ethics and divinity that ever were written." --Thomas Jefferson to Robert Skipwith, 1771. ME 4:239, Papers 1:77

    https://www.facebook.com/IlynRossJeffersonian/photos/a.1418064721739301.1073741828.1418031698409270/1470363176509455/?type=1&theater

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  44. See page 175 - http://books.google.com/books?id=m9AXpiJXw48C&pg=PA202&lpg=PA202&dq=celebrities+whose+hero+is+Thomas+Jefferson&source=bl&ots=olSt6ziX2t&sig=DrUwoGdnKD8EgKZ9dP61WdLcknY&hl=en&sa=X&ei=774jU7aCFOfx0gHax4HwBA&ved=0CEYQ6AEwAzgo#v=onepage&q=celebrities%20whose%20hero%20is%20Thomas%20Jefferson&f=false

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  45. !!!!! Thomas Jefferson Defines American Foreign Policy & Treaty Law

    http://truthbasedlogic.com/jeffersn.htm

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  46. Thomas Jefferson Defines American Foreign Policy & Treaty Law

    The Law of nations... is composed of three branches. 1. The Moral law of our nature. 2. The Usages of nations. 3. Their special Conventions.

    The first of these only, concerns this question, that is to say the Moral law to which Man has been subjected by his Creator, & of which his feelings, or Conscience as it is sometimes called, are the evidence with which his Creator has furnished him. The Moral duties which exist between individual and individual in a state of nature, accompany them into a state of society & the aggregate of the duties of all the individuals composing the society constitutes the duties of that society towards any other; so that between society & society the same moral duties exist as did between the individuals composing them while in an unassociated state, their Maker not having released them from those duties on their forming themselves into a nation. Compacts then between nation & nation are obligatory on them by the same moral law which obliges individuals to observe their compacts.

    There are circumstances however which sometimes excuse the non-performance of contracts between man & man; so are there also between nation & nation. When performance, for instance, becomes impossible, non-performance is not immoral. So if performance becomes self-destructive to the party, the law of self-preservation overrules the laws of obligation to others. For the reality of these principles I appeal to the true fountains of evidence, the head & heart of every rational & honest man. It is there Nature has written her moral laws, & where every man may read them for himself. He will never read there the permission to annul his obligations for a time, or for ever, whenever they become 'dangerous, useless or disagreeable.'

    Certainly not when merely useless or disagreeable, as seems to be said in an authority which has been quoted, Vattel. 2. 197, and though he may under certain degrees of danger, yet the danger must be imminent, & the degree great. Of these, it is true, that nations are to be judges for themselves, since no one nation has a right to sit in judgment over another. But the tribunal of our consciences remains, & that also of the opinion of the world. These will revise the sentence we pass in our own case, & as we respect these, we must see that in judging ourselves we have honestly done the part of impartial & vigorous judges.

    But Reason, which gives this right of self-liberation from a contract in certain cases, has subjected it to certain just limitations....

    http://truthbasedlogic.com/jeffersn.htm

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  47. http://future.state.gov/when/timeline/1784_timeline/jefferson_first_secretary.html

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  48. The entire article is a very good read, for several reasons -

    "In 1787, Jefferson was re-elected to a second three-year term as minister to France. Through correspondence with James Madison, he was kept up to relative speed on the progress of the Constitutional Convention, which was proceeding at Philadelphia in that same year. Jefferson was of the conservative opinion that a mere revision of the Articles of Confederation was necessary in order to increase the role of the federal government. Others, Madison most prominent among them, were for a complete overhaul, the direction of which Jefferson observed with an aloof but vested interest. He raised his loudest objections at the absence of a Bill of Rights, which he did much to shape in conjunction with Madison, and which stands beside the Constitution as a bedrock of Americas present-day political system (See the Constitution SparkNote)."

    http://www.sparknotes.com/biography/jefferson/section9.rhtml

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  49. http://famguardian.org/Subjects/Politics/ThomasJefferson/jeff0750.htm

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  50. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honor_code

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  51. http://books.google.com/books?id=p6o-AAAAYAAJ&pg=PA341&lpg=PA341&dq=%22Hence+the+inestimable+value+of+intellectual+pleasures%22&source=bl&ots=gjaWqp-a5R&sig=TVVlKU_G5eYsAnK0HweiBaWQiUM&hl=en&sa=X&ei=2Ow_U6KfDeuvsQSjw4GgAQ&ved=0CE4Q6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q=%22Hence%20the%20inestimable%20value%20of%20intellectual%20pleasures%22&f=false

    ReplyDelete
  52. I am not a Liberal, nor a Conservative, nor a Libertarian, nor a Progressive. I am a JEFFERSONIAN.

    http://jeffersonianclub.blogspot.com/2013/05/thomas-jeffersons-philosophy.html

    ReplyDelete
  53. http://bltnotjustasandwich.com/2012/01/06/whose-inalienable-rights-mine-yours-theirs/

    ReplyDelete
  54. http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/how-thomas-jefferson-created-his-own-bible-5659505/?no-ist

    ReplyDelete
  55. Jesus

    http://books.google.com/books?id=BMzIavSRNdEC&pg=PA123&lpg=PA123&dq=why+jefferson+considered+Christ's+morality+as+most+sublime&source=bl&ots=blzf4K3b3H&sig=9TTj2994JRsq0sM0yYaPt-1iosQ&hl=en&sa=X&ei=y9ZTU9PECKynsATSioD4DA&ved=0CDsQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=why%20jefferson%20considered%20Christ's%20morality%20as%20most%20sublime&f=false

    ReplyDelete
  56. Jesus by Thomas Jefferson

    http://www.let.rug.nl/usa/presidents/thomas-jefferson/letters-of-thomas-jefferson/jefl154.php

    ReplyDelete
  57. April 1803
    The Letters of Thomas Jefferson


    In a comparative view of the Ethics of the enlightened nations of antiquity, of the Jews and of Jesus, no notice should be taken of the corruptions of reason among the ancients, to wit, the idolatry & superstition of the vulgar, nor of the corruptions of Christianity by the learned among its professors.

    Let a just view be taken of the moral principles inculcated by the most esteemed of the sects of ancient philosophy, or of their individuals; particularly Pythagoras, Socrates, Epicurus, Cicero, Epictetus, Seneca, Antoninus.

    I. PHILOSOPHERS. 1. Their precepts related chiefly to ourselves, and the government of those passions which, unrestrained, would disturb our tranquillity of mind. In this branch of philosophy they were really great.

    2. In developing our duties to others, they were short and defective. They embraced, indeed, the circles of kindred & friends, and inculcated patriotism, or the love of our country in the aggregate, as a primary obligation: toward our neighbors & countrymen they taught justice, but scarcely viewed them as within the circle of benevolence. Still less have they inculcated peace, charity & love to our fellow men, or embraced with benevolence the whole family of mankind.

    II. JEWS. 1. Their system was Deism; that is, the belief of one only God. But their ideas of him & of his attributes were degrading & injurious.

    2. Their Ethics were not only imperfect, but often irreconcilable with the sound dictates of reason & morality, as they respect intercourse with those around us; & repulsive & anti-social, as respecting other nations. They needed reformation, therefore, in an eminent degree.

    III. JESUS. In this state of things among the Jews, Jesus appeared. His parentage was obscure; his condition poor; his education null; his natural endowments great; his life correct and innocent: he was meek, benevolent, patient, firm, disinterested, & of the sublimest eloquence.

    The disadvantages under which his doctrines appear are remarkable.

    1. Like Socrates & Epictetus, he wrote nothing himself.

    2. But he had not, like them, a Xenophon or an Arrian to write for him. On the contrary, all the learned of his country, entrenched in its power and riches, were opposed to him, lest his labors should undermine their advantages; and the committing to writing his life & doctrines fell on the most unlettered & ignorant men; who wrote, too, from memory, & not till long after the transactions had passed.

    3. According to the ordinary fate of those who attempt to enlighten and reform mankind, he fell an early victim to the jealousy & combination of the altar and the throne, at about 33. years of age, his reason having not yet attained the maximum of its energy, nor the course of his preaching, which was but of 3. years at most, presented occasions for developing a complete system of morals.

    4. Hence the doctrines which he really delivered were defective as a whole, and fragments only of what he did deliver have come to us mutilated, misstated, & often unintelligible.

    ReplyDelete

  58. 5. They have been still more disfigured by the corruptions of schismatising followers, who have found an interest in sophisticating & perverting the simple doctrines he taught by engrafting on them the mysticisms of a Grecian sophist, frittering them into subtleties, & obscuring them with jargon, until they have caused good men to reject the whole in disgust, & to view Jesus himself as an impostor.

    Notwithstanding these disadvantages, a system of morals is presented to us, which, if filled up in the true style and spirit of the rich fragments he left us, would be the most perfect and sublime that has ever been taught by man.

    The question of his being a member of the Godhead, or in direct communication with it, claimed for him by some of his followers, and denied by others, is foreign to the present view, which is merely an estimate of the intrinsic merit of his doctrines.

    1. He corrected the Deism of the Jews, confirming them in their belief of one only God, and giving them juster notions of his attributes and government.

    2. His moral doctrines, relating to kindred & friends, were more pure & perfect than those of the most correct of the philosophers, and greatly more so than those of the Jews; and they went far beyond both in inculcating universal philanthropy, not only to kindred and friends, to neighbors and countrymen, but to all mankind, gathering all into one family, under the bonds of love, charity, peace, common wants and common aids. A development of this head will evince the peculiar superiority of the system of Jesus over all others.

    3. The precepts of philosophy, & of the Hebrew code, laid hold of actions only. He pushed his scrutinies into the heart of man; erected his tribunal in the region of his thoughts, and purified the waters at the fountain head.

    4. He taught, emphatically, the doctrines of a future state, which was either doubted, or disbelieved by the Jews; and wielded it with efficacy, as an important incentive, supplementary to the other motives to moral conduct.

    http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/how-thomas-jefferson-created-his-own-bible-5659505/?no-ist

    ReplyDelete
  59. "The doctrines which [Jesus]] really delivered... have come to us mutilated, misstated, & often unintelligible. They have been still more disfigured by the corruptions of schismatising followers, who have found an interest in sophisticating & perverting the simple doctrines he taught by engrafting on them the mysticisms of a Grecian sophist, frittering them into subtleties, & obscuring them with jargon, until they have caused good men to reject the whole in disgust, & to view Jesus himself as an impostor.

    Notwithstanding these disadvantages, a system of morals is presented to us, which, if filled up in the true style and spirit of the rich fragments he left us, would be the most perfect and sublime that has ever been taught by man." - Thomas Jefferson

    https://www.facebook.com/IlynRossJeffersonian/photos/a.1418064721739301.1073741828.1418031698409270/1483779545167818/?type=1&theater

    http://www.let.rug.nl/usa/presidents/thomas-jefferson/letters-of-thomas-jefferson/jefl154.php

    ReplyDelete
  60. Ayn Rand considered Kant, the proponent of categorical imperatives, as the most evil man who ever lived. Yet, she established Objectivism with an atheistic imperative.

    That is the difference between Jeffersonianism and Objectivism.

    The following is from Thomas Jefferson:

    "In a comparative view of the Ethics of the enlightened nations of antiquity, of the Jews and of Jesus, no notice should be taken of the corruptions of reason among the ancients, to wit, the idolatry & superstition of the vulgar, nor of the corruptions of Christianity by the learned among its professors.

    Let a just view be taken of the moral principles inculcated by the most esteemed of the sects of ancient philosophy, or of their individuals; particularly Pythagoras, Socrates, Epicurus, Cicero, Epictetus, Seneca, Antoninus.

    I. PHILOSOPHERS. 1. Their precepts related chiefly to ourselves, and the government of those passions which, unrestrained, would disturb our tranquillity of mind. In this branch of philosophy they were really great.

    2. In developing our duties to others, they were short and defective. They embraced, indeed, the circles of kindred & friends, and inculcated patriotism, or the love of our country in the aggregate, as a primary obligation: toward our neighbors & countrymen they taught justice, but scarcely viewed them as within the circle of benevolence. Still less have they inculcated peace, charity & love to our fellow men, or embraced with benevolence the whole family of mankind.

    II. JEWS. 1. Their system was Deism; that is, the belief of one only God. But their ideas of him & of his attributes were degrading & injurious.

    2. Their Ethics were not only imperfect, but often irreconcilable with the sound dictates of reason & morality, as they respect intercourse with those around us; & repulsive & anti-social, as respecting other nations. They needed reformation, therefore, in an eminent degree.

    ReplyDelete
  61. III. JESUS. In this state of things among the Jews, Jesus appeared. His parentage was obscure; his condition poor; his education null; his natural endowments great; his life correct and innocent: he was meek, benevolent, patient, firm, disinterested, & of the sublimest eloquence.

    The disadvantages under which his doctrines appear are remarkable.

    1. Like Socrates & Epictetus, he wrote nothing himself.

    2. But he had not, like them, a Xenophon or an Arrian to write for him. On the contrary, all the learned of his country, entrenched in its power and riches, were opposed to him, lest his labors should undermine their advantages; and the committing to writing his life & doctrines fell on the most unlettered & ignorant men; who wrote, too, from memory, & not till long after the transactions had passed.

    3. According to the ordinary fate of those who attempt to enlighten and reform mankind, he fell an early victim to the jealousy & combination of the altar and the throne, at about 33. years of age, his reason having not yet attained the maximum of its energy, nor the course of his preaching, which was but of 3. years at most, presented occasions for developing a complete system of morals.

    4. Hence the doctrines which he really delivered were defective as a whole, and fragments only of what he did deliver have come to us mutilated, misstated, & often unintelligible.

    5. They have been still more disfigured by the corruptions of schismatising followers, who have found an interest in sophisticating & perverting the simple doctrines he taught by engrafting on them the mysticisms of a Grecian sophist, frittering them into subtleties, & obscuring them with jargon, until they have caused good men to reject the whole in disgust, & to view Jesus himself as an impostor.

    Notwithstanding these disadvantages, a system of morals is presented to us, which, if filled up in the true style and spirit of the rich fragments he left us, would be the most perfect and sublime that has ever been taught by man.

    The question of his being a member of the Godhead, or in direct communication with it, claimed for him by some of his followers, and denied by others, is foreign to the present view, which is merely an estimate of the intrinsic merit of his doctrines.

    1. He corrected the Deism of the Jews, confirming them in their belief of one only God, and giving them juster notions of his attributes and government.

    2. His moral doctrines, relating to kindred & friends, were more pure & perfect than those of the most correct of the philosophers, and greatly more so than those of the Jews; and they went far beyond both in inculcating universal philanthropy, not only to kindred and friends, to neighbors and countrymen, but to all mankind, gathering all into one family, under the bonds of love, charity, peace, common wants and common aids. A development of this head will evince the peculiar superiority of the system of Jesus over all others.

    3. The precepts of philosophy, & of the Hebrew code, laid hold of actions only. He pushed his scrutinies into the heart of man; erected his tribunal in the region of his thoughts, and purified the waters at the fountain head.

    4. He taught, emphatically, the doctrines of a future state, which was either doubted, or disbelieved by the Jews; and wielded it with efficacy, as an important incentive, supplementary to the other motives to moral conduct."

    http://www.let.rug.nl/usa/presidents/thomas-jefferson/letters-of-thomas-jefferson/jefl154.php

    ReplyDelete
  62. Whose words are being used to fight DARK-AGES warriors? No, not Ayn Rand's, but these famous Thomas Jefferson words: wall of separation.

    ReplyDelete
  63. “Perfect Freedom is as necessary to the health and vigor of commerce as it is to the health and vigor of citizenship.” – Patrick Henry

    Thomas Jefferson:

    "I think all the world would gain by setting commerce at perfect liberty."

    "The policy of the American government is to leave their citizens free, neither restraining nor aiding them in their pursuits."

    "To take from one because it is thought that his own industry and that of his father’s has acquired too much, in order to spare to others, who, or whose fathers have not exercised equal industry and skill, is to violate arbitrarily the first principle of association -- the guarantee to every one of a free exercise of his industry and the fruits acquired by it."

    “A wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government.”

    "We both consider the people as our children, and love them with parental affection. But you love them as infants whom you are afraid to trust without nurses; and I as adults whom I freely leave to self-government."

    "Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add 'within the limits of the law' because law is often but the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual."

    “That there exists a right independent of force; that a RIGHT to PROPERTY is FOUNDED in our NATURAL WANTS, in the means with which we are endowed to satisfy these wants, and the right to what we acquire by those means without violating the similar rights of other sensible beings; that NO ONE HAS A RIGHT TO OBSTRUCT ANOTHER exercising his faculties innocently for the relief of sensibilities made a part of his nature; that justice is the fundamental law of society; that the majority, oppressing an individual, is guilty of a crime, abuses its strength, and by acting on the law of the strongest, breaks up the foundations of society; that action by the citizens in person, in affairs within their reach and competence, and in all others by representatives chosen immediately and removable by themselves constitutes the essence of a republic...”

    ReplyDelete
  64. Detesting Politics is akin to detesting the Founders.

    One who detests Politics does not have the mind nor virtue to determine the principles proper to a society.

    ReplyDelete
  65. To experience happiness, one must be alive and free. While the Founders, like Thomas Jefferson, thought hard as well as acted, in order for freedom to fluorish, Ayn Rand took it out of the equation that tyrant-wannabes are active at all times, and good people must fight them.

    ReplyDelete
  66. Hi Felix. I love Howard Roark, and I admire Ayn Rand. But, I am not an Objectivist because I am not an atheist. I am a Jeffersonian.

    The difference between Objectivism and Jeffersonianism is: though Ayn Rand thought that Kant, the proponent of categorical imperatives, was the most evil man who ever lived, Ayn Rand defined Objectivism with an atheistic imperative, while Jeffersonianism is based on absolute freedom.

    Objectivism is a magnet for atheists, including the irrational. Many have tried to bully me here on fb. Some hold that Jefferson was theocratic.

    Ayn Rand was not hostile to religious people who are for the wall of separation. Neither is Dr. Peikoff, who describes the early Christians as angels. But there are atheists calling themselves Objectivists who are hostile to people who believe in God. Such hostility can prevent people from appreciating the advocacy for reason and capitalism.

    https://www.facebook.com/IlynRossJeffersonian/photos/a.1435709796641460.1073741838.1418031698409270/1437516613127445/?type=3&theater

    ReplyDelete
  67. I am not an advocate for theism or against atheism. I am an advocate for rights and freedom. Many atheists calling themselves Objectivists are militant even against those on the side of Thomas Jefferson.

    ReplyDelete