American Heritage Influential People Flashcards
Thomas Hobbes
Believed that humans were dangerous and that we invented the concepts of good and evil.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Believed that humans were good but that we are now fallen.
Said that modern man’s enslavement to his own needs was the cause of all social ills.
David Hume
Believed that people developed based on the information they took in.
John Winthrop
Civil Liberty and Natural Liberty
Believed more in civil liberty whereas Captain America wanted natural liberty.
Wanted his city to be a city upon a hill.
Story of the Ring of Gyges
w/o accountability or consequences for actions, man will act evilly.
House of Burgesses
First democratic institution in America, met annually to give the colonists opinion to the governor.
Three religious, puritan, beliefs that would impact American nationhood
- God’s Elect
- The Christian Calling
- Moral self-governance
John Calvin
Puritan leader that propogated the three puritan ideals that would affect American nationhood
John Locke
Wrote the Second treatise which was the basis for the declaration of independence.
Sir George Yeardley
Man who introduced democracy and slavery into modern America
John F. Kennedy
Wrote about the tree pressures that senators face
- Being liked
- Wanting to be reelected
- Voters and constituencies
Johnathon Rauch
Wrote the Constitution of Knowledge.
Edmund Burke
Gave a speech in Bristol. Talked about how the members of government should use their own judgement to do what was best for society regardless of what their constituency thought.
Glaucon
From Plato’s Republic: argued that people when not held accountable for their actions will act unjustly.
Ring of Gyges.
Socrates
He thinks that (focuses on the nature of justice) we can only fully understand justice if we are in a perfect state of society. He Thinks that we can reach that by hiding the past and only educate on the good things that happen because then as we move forward we are only going to repeat the good things.
From the Plato’s Republic Society
Adeimantus
Humans will do unjust things based on position in society.
From the Plato’s Republic reading.
Collective Action Problem
A collective action problem is any situation where a group of people would be collectively better off if they cooperate but they cannot because of conflicting interests and goals.
Solutions to Collective Action Problems
- Selective Incentives: A side benefit to go along with the main potential benefit. They often solve the problem but are difficult to design and keep inappropriate bounds.
- Political entrepreneurs: A social leader that organizes groups to solve the problem.
- Ideologies or Belief Systems: Most powerful and most fragile
Government is a solution for societies that want to regularly solve collective action problems.
Founding
A conscious and deliberate act of creation of Government
Human Predicament Cycle
Tyranny > Revolution > Anarchy > Competing groups > Tyranny, etc.
4 main qualities of a good society (values that go into a good society)
- Prosperity
- Liberty
- Equality
- Community
Lockean Liberty
Is a different idea of freedom, a freedom from government and not in it. Originated from England and The Glorious Revolution
The Second Treatise
Argued that political power came from the people themselves and not from another source.
- In a perfect state of nature everyone lived in a state of freedom and equality.
- Humans invented government to secure their rights in this state
- Government’s only purpose is to protect the rights of its citizens
- The consent of the governed is required for the legitimacy of the government.
- Any government that does not do what it is designed to do should be abolished.
The Glorious Revolution
James II was kicked out of rule and his daughter, Mary, was put on the throne. The monarchy was subject to Parliament’s rule afterwards.
Social Compacts
A mutual agreement between two or more people with a specific purpose
John Adams
Was a young lawyer that was willing to defend the soldiers to uphold the rule of law.
