American Heritage Influential People

Question 1

Thomas Hobbes

Answer 1

Believed that humans were dangerous and that we invented the concepts of good and evil.

Question 2

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Answer 2

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.

Question 3

David Hume

Answer 3

Believed that people developed based on the information they took in.

Question 4

John Winthrop

Answer 4

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.

Question 5

Story of the Ring of Gyges

Answer 5

w/o accountability or consequences for actions, man will act evilly.

Question 6

House of Burgesses

Answer 6

First democratic institution in America, met annually to give the colonists opinion to the governor.

Question 7

Three religious, puritan, beliefs that would impact American nationhood

Answer 7

1. God’s Elect
2. The Christian Calling
3. Moral self-governance

Question 8

John Calvin

Answer 8

Puritan leader that propogated the three puritan ideals that would affect American nationhood

Question 9

John Locke

Answer 9

Wrote the Second treatise which was the basis for the declaration of independence.

Question 10

Sir George Yeardley

Answer 10

Man who introduced democracy and slavery into modern America

Question 11

John F. Kennedy

Answer 11

Wrote about the tree pressures that senators face

1. Being liked
2. Wanting to be reelected
3. Voters and constituencies

Question 12

Johnathon Rauch

Answer 12

Wrote the Constitution of Knowledge.

Question 13

Edmund Burke

Answer 13

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.

Question 14

Glaucon

Answer 14

From Plato’s Republic: argued that people when not held accountable for their actions will act unjustly.

Ring of Gyges.

Question 15

Socrates

Answer 15

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

Question 16

Adeimantus

Answer 16

Humans will do unjust things based on position in society.

From the Plato’s Republic reading.

Question 17

Collective Action Problem

Answer 17

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.

Question 18

Solutions to Collective Action Problems

Answer 18

1. 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.
2. Political entrepreneurs: A social leader that organizes groups to solve the problem.
3. Ideologies or Belief Systems: Most powerful and most fragile

Government is a solution for societies that want to regularly solve collective action problems.

Question 19

Founding

Answer 19

A conscious and deliberate act of creation of Government

Question 20

Human Predicament Cycle

Answer 20

Tyranny > Revolution > Anarchy > Competing groups > Tyranny, etc.

Question 21

4 main qualities of a good society (values that go into a good society)

Answer 21

1. Prosperity
2. Liberty
3. Equality
4. Community

Question 22

Lockean Liberty

Answer 22

Is a different idea of freedom, a freedom from government and not in it. Originated from England and The Glorious Revolution

Question 23

The Second Treatise

Answer 23

Argued that political power came from the people themselves and not from another source.

1. In a perfect state of nature everyone lived in a state of freedom and equality.
2. Humans invented government to secure their rights in this state
3. Government’s only purpose is to protect the rights of its citizens
4. The consent of the governed is required for the legitimacy of the government.
5. Any government that does not do what it is designed to do should be abolished.

Question 24

The Glorious Revolution

Answer 24

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.

Question 25

Social Compacts

Answer 25

A mutual agreement between two or more people with a specific purpose

Question 26

John Adams

Answer 26

Was a young lawyer that was willing to defend the soldiers to uphold the rule of law.