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JA8. Thomas Jefferson

Statement

Hopefully, this week has increased your worldview about Philosophy in your life.

For this week’s journal, please:

  • Share what the most interesting part (lesson/discussion) this week was to you.
  • How did that reading, or experience of thinking about it, change your perception of knowledge and truth around you?
  • Consider the philosophers discussed in this unit and please explain how you thought before, and how the new viewpoint changed that old thinking into something new.

Answer

Thomas Jefferson was a very important figure in the history of the United States. He was a philosopher, lawyer, and politician. He was the main author of the Declaration of Independence and the third President of the United States.

Jefferson studied Enlightenment philosophy and believed in deism. He believed in the separation of church and state, and that morality was given by God. He was a controversial figure because he owned slaves but believed in freedom and equality(Gearhart, 2021). Politically, he supported the Republic of America as opposed to Federalism.

One experience that surprised me was Jefferson’s views on Plato’s Republic. He viewed Plato’s work as overestimated and did not deserve the status and respect that philosophers gave it (Jefferson Hour, 2016). This was surprising to me because I always thought that Plato’s Republic was a very important work in the history of philosophy and that it was highly respected by all philosophers.

In his letter to John Adams, Jefferson wrote, “I laid it down often to ask myself how it could have been that the world should have so long consented to give reputation to such nonsense as this? how the soi-disant Christian world indeed should have done it, is a piece of historical curiosity. but how could the Roman good sense do it?” (Jefferson, 1814).

The previous statement shows harsh criticism of Plato’s work to the point of calling it nonsense; and how could pass a Christian world and the Romans. Plato’s Republic which I studied in this course, represented different ideas about what I was expected about family, society, and government. I view the way that Plato discussed these issues as completely wrong and it is different from family values that have been transferred from generation to generation; I also see that his separation of societies into classes is not a good idea and -although it was normal at the time-, does not represent the values that I was expecting from Plato.

Before reading this chapter, I was afraid of showing my opinion about Plato’s Republic because I thought that it was one of the defacto works in philosophy that should not be judged, and it is not the right of a student like me to criticize that. After reading this chapter, I saw that there are great philosophers who were very critical of Plato’s work and some called it nonsense; thus, I would be more open about my opinions in any philosophical work from now on.

On the other hand, Jefferson was a controversial figure because he owned slaves but believed in freedom and equality. This is a contradiction in his beliefs and actions, which a things that people tend to not tolerate; but, I think that a good man can NOT fix the world; instead, a collective effort of too many people is needed to make a remarkable change in the world.

References

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