The Ominous Parallels - Tranche XI
Posted by mshupe 6 months ago to Philosophy
Chapter 5, Excerpt 2 of 2
The Nation of the Enlightenment
After centuries of medieval wallowing in Original Sin, a moral confidence swept the West. If man is not yet perfect, he is at least perfectible. The Enlightenment upheld the pursuit of happiness . . . gained by his own independent efforts, self-development and leading to self-respect. Aristotle provided the foundation, but he did not know how to implement it politically. The Founding Fathers started with the primacy and sovereignty of the individual. Man’s rights are natural, and they are inalienable.
In this view, that state is the servant of the individual. It is not a sovereign possessing primary authority, but an agent possessing delegated authority. When the framers spoke of “the people,” they did not mean a collectivist organism . . . they meant a sum of individuals. If liberty requires the principled recognition and practical implementation of man’s rights, then Lord Acton spoke the truth when he said that liberty is “that which was not, until the last quarter of the 18th century in Pennsylvania.”
The Americans were political revolutionaries, not ethical revolutionaries. The philosopher taken as the defender of scientific law could not validate the concept of causality. Part Aristotelian, part Christian, part Cartesian, it was an eclectic mess. America was born a profound anomaly: a solid political structure erected on a tottering base. Even as they struggled to bring a new nation into existence, its philosophic gravediggers were already at work, cashing in on the period’s contradictions.
The Nation of the Enlightenment
After centuries of medieval wallowing in Original Sin, a moral confidence swept the West. If man is not yet perfect, he is at least perfectible. The Enlightenment upheld the pursuit of happiness . . . gained by his own independent efforts, self-development and leading to self-respect. Aristotle provided the foundation, but he did not know how to implement it politically. The Founding Fathers started with the primacy and sovereignty of the individual. Man’s rights are natural, and they are inalienable.
In this view, that state is the servant of the individual. It is not a sovereign possessing primary authority, but an agent possessing delegated authority. When the framers spoke of “the people,” they did not mean a collectivist organism . . . they meant a sum of individuals. If liberty requires the principled recognition and practical implementation of man’s rights, then Lord Acton spoke the truth when he said that liberty is “that which was not, until the last quarter of the 18th century in Pennsylvania.”
The Americans were political revolutionaries, not ethical revolutionaries. The philosopher taken as the defender of scientific law could not validate the concept of causality. Part Aristotelian, part Christian, part Cartesian, it was an eclectic mess. America was born a profound anomaly: a solid political structure erected on a tottering base. Even as they struggled to bring a new nation into existence, its philosophic gravediggers were already at work, cashing in on the period’s contradictions.
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