Values and Ethics of the
American Founding
Fathers
Humanism
• Humanism is a broad
category of ethical
philosophies that
places man, not God, at
the center of social life.
• Humanists believe in
man’s capacity for
lasting social and moral
progress.
Founders and Classical Philosophy
• Founders used
classical texts to
support a
version of
humanism
whose emphasis
on progress and
individual rights
was distinctly
modern.
Stoic Theory of Natural Law
• According to
Stoicism, the
whole cosmos is
rationally ordered
by an active
principle variously
named God,
mind, Providence,
or fate.
• cosmos.
Stoic Theory of Natural Law
• The Stoic view of
Natural Law
[universal ethical
code]: based on both
reason and intuition
[direct and
immediate
apprehension of
truth].
• Ancient Greek
philosophers were the
first to elaborate a
natural law doctrine.
Stoic Theory of Virtue
• To live virtuously means
to live in accord with
one's nature, to live
according to right reason.
• This doctrine was
popularized among the
Romans .
• Founders’ Virtues:
frugality, simplicity,
temperance, fortitude,
love of liberty, honor, etc.
Epicurean Humanism: Reason
• In the Epicurean
view, the highest
pleasure
(happiness and
freedom from fear)
was obtained by
knowledge and
reason.
Epicurean Humanism
• In modern times Thomas
Jefferson referred to
himself as an Epicurean,
and the preamble to the
United States Declaration
of Independence
demonstrates Epicurean
influence by inalienable
right of life, liberty, and
the pursuit of happiness.
Religious Beliefs of Founders
• If there is a clear
legacy bequeathed
by the founders, it is
the insistence that
religion was a
private matter in
which the state
should not interfere.
Most Founders Believed?
1.
2.
3.
4.
Faith in a remote God
Afterlife: Rewards and Punishments
Justification by good works
Religion/morality vital to survival of
Republic
5. Free will
6. Jesus: ethical philosopher, not divine
Religion and Founders
• Ben Franklin and
Thomas Jefferson
believed in the
existence of a God on
the basis of reason, and
observation of the
natural world.
• They seemed to stress
the social utility of faith
and religion.
Religion and Founders
• George Washington
harbored a Stoic sense
of providential destiny.
• Believed in a
distant, impersonal
God
• Lifelong Anglican
• Stressed the social
utility of religion
and morality
• Rarely referred to
Jesus
Religion and Founders
• John Adams
began a
Congregationalist and ended a
Unitarian.
• Emphasized
ethics over
theology.
Founders and Religion
• Founders interwove
Christianity with
classical philosophy.
• Founders acceptance of
modern science caused
them to question
traditional religious
doctrines of direct
divine intervention in
the world.
Founders and Classical Philosophy
• Founders used
classical texts to
support a
version of
humanism
whose emphasis
on progress and
individual rights
was distinctly
modern.