The New Science of Politics

1
The New Science of Politics

• Thomas Jefferson
• and the
• Natural Rights Argument

2
The Story So Far

• Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527)
• Politics inevitably deals with necessity
• No man rules but is ruled by need
• We are all equally self-interested
• Men cannot to be trusted to be anything by
  selfish
• Statecraft requires anticipating necessity
• One must manipulate appearances to preserve ones
  state

3
The Story So Far

• Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679)
• Human beings alike in their nature
• Human nature best seen in the absence of society
• self-interested
• State of Nature so bad, so dangerous that we must
  leave it to form societies
• Societies depend on a social contract among its
  members
• Terms of Hobbes social contract exchange rights
  for security
• Sovereigns established by societies to enforce
  the social contract
• Sovereigns superior in power to subjects
• Sovereigns limited by the needs of the social
  contract
• Sovereigns may be replaced when they fail to
  enforce the social contract.

4
The Story So Far

• John Locke (1632-1704)
• Human beings are alike in their nature
• Every man a sovereign in the State of Nature
• State of Nature insecure
• Societies depend on a social contract under
  Natural Law
• Terms of Lockes Social Contract share executive
  power over the Law of Nature to secure life
  liberty property
• Civil Government established to enforce Natural
  Law where individuals cannot
• Civil Sovereigns equal to subjects
• Civil Government limited by Law of Nature and
  Social Contract
• Civil Government may be replaced if they violate
  either of these
• New Civil governments require consent for
  legitimacy

5
Thomas Jefferson(1743-1826)

• Virginia statesman, political thinker, scientist,
  horticulturist and inventor
• Interpretation of human nature central to the
  American Founding
• Strongly influenced by John Lockes Second
  Treatise of Government
• Author of the Declaration of Independence
• Founder of the University of Virginia

6
Jefferson and Human Nature

• Human nature a result of the Laws of Nature and
  of Natures God
• All men are created equal
• They are endowed by their Creator with inherent
  and inalienable rights
• Among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of
  happiness
• Emphasizes law of nature and inalienability of
  rights
• For Jefferson, rights are not products of
  society, but are a part of human nature
• (Similar to Lockes State of Nature argument,
  isnt it?)

7
Jefferson and Government

• For Jefferson, governments have only one purpose
• To secure natural rights
• In order to secure natural rights, a government
  must respect those rights even at its inception
• Governments depend on the consent of the governed
  for their legitimacy
• The standard of justice
• Does a government secure natural rights?
• Does a government recognize its dependence on the
  consent of the governed?

8
A Fourth Natural Right

• The right of the people to alter or abolish
  government
• Whenever any form of government is destructive of
  the security of natural rights
• Governments are instruments of sovereignty, but
  are not themselves sovereigns
• The people are the sovereign, not any government

9
Limits to the Fourth Natural Right

• Prudence
• Governments long established should not be
  changed for light and transient causes
• Experience
• Shows that mankind are more disposed to suffer
  while evils are sufferable than to right
  themselves
• These limits do not mean that abuses by
  governments are right or justonly that they are
  tolerablefor now.

10
The Fourth Natural Right as Duty

• When a long train of abuses and usurpations
  demonstrates a design to exercise despotic power
• Remember despotic power in Aristotle?
• The power of master over slave
• So, when government seeks to enslave the
  governed, it is the duty of the governed to
  overthrow government

11
Wait a minute
Descendants of Sally Hemings

• Wasnt Jefferson a Virginia slave owner?
• How can Jefferson claim that natural rights are
  violated when government tries to make slaves of
  the governed when he himself governs slaves?
• The answer may be found in his difference with
  Locke
• Property v. pursuit of happiness

12
Jefferson on Slavery

• Lists the institution of slavery as a system of
  crimes committed by the King of Great Britain
• The king violates natural rights by establishing
  slavery
• The king violates natural rights by opposing the
  abolition of slavery
• The king violates the natural rights both of
  slaves and slaveholders
• Elsewhere on slavery
• I tremble for my country when I think that God
  is justGods Justice cannot sleep forever

He has waged cruel war against human nature
itself, violating its most sacred rights of life
and liberty in the persons of a distant people
who never offended him, captivating and carrying
them into slavery into another hemisphere, or to
incur miserable death in their transportation
hither. This piratical warfare, the opprobrium
of INFIDEL powers, is the warfare of the
CHRISTIAN king of Great Britain.
Determined to keep open a market where MEN should
be bought and sold, he has prostituted his
negative for suppressing every legislative
attempt to prohibit or to restrain this execrable
commerce.
And that this assemblage of horrors might want no
fact of distinguished die, he is now exciting
those very people to rise in arms among us, and
to purchase that liberty of which he has deprived
them, by murdering the people on whom he also
obtruded them thus paying off former crimes
against the LIBERTIES of one people, with crimes
which he urges them to commit against the LIVES
of another.
13
Major Themes of the Declaration of Independence
Self evident truths
We hold these truths to be self-evident
Human equality
All men are created equal
They are endowed by their Creator with certain
unalienable rights
Among these rights Life Liberty Pursuit of
happiness
Natural rights
Purpose of govt
To secure rights
Measure of Justice
Consent of the governed
Whenever any form of govt is destructive of the
security of natural rights
Right of revolution
Prudence Long-established govts shouldnt be
overthrown for light and transient
causes Experience Men are more disposed to
suffer while evils are sufferable than to right
themselves
Limits to the right of revolution