Dr Bill O'Brien 07 July 2014

Today we start off the week with a brief recap of last Wednesday's program, including a renewed discussion of the crucial importance of context in the analysis of meaning. As in the example of the Chinese language and how context delivers the expressed meaning, so the student of history must keep the context of events in mind when reading the events of the past. With this perspective Dr Bill renews our ongoing examination of the Declaration of Independence with a look at the historical context surrounding its composition, and the philosophical, moral, and religious sentiments of that era. The medieval cosmology which placed man and earth at the center of a universe comprehensible only to God slowly gave way to the Age of Enlightenment, and the new understanding that much of the observable universe appears to conform to readily discoverable and reliable laws, operating with an order and precision likened in that day to the operation of a clock. The philosophical world also participated in this revolution of scientific understanding, as Dr Bill demonstrates with readings from Adam Smith, a key figure in the Scottish Enlightenment, which, as historian Garry Wills argued in his groundbreaking work on the Declaration, Inventing America, was a key influence on Thomas Jefferson's world view as expressed in that famous document. Smith's famous "invisible hand" operating behind the scenes in economic markets provides a clear example of the Enlightenment view of the universe as operating according to a coherent and observable order. Also discussed today: -Jefferson's love of all things scientific, and how that passion drove him to make exhaustive measurements of all sorts, such as rainfall in Virginia, to the collection of numerous charts, and even to his promotion of a unique American system of weights and measures. -David Rittenhouse's orrery, which captured the imagination of Jefferson and became the object of competition between Princeton and the College of Philadelphia (now the University of Pennsylvania), and a list of some other of his inventions. In the latter half, Dr Bill re-examines the "pursuit of happiness" and what that could have meant to Jefferson and his contemporaries, including another look at Adam Smith, Thomas Reid's philosophy of moral duty, and Cesare Beccaria's "On Crimes and Punishments," a favorite work from which Jefferson copied long handwritten passages. Also we're treated to a formula for measuring morality devised by Francis Hutcheson, and its similarity to the list of virtues found in Benjamin Franklin's autobiography. A picture emerges of a universe comprised from top to bottom of large and small systems, all conforming to laws discernable to humankind. For the Founders, this view extended to political systems as well, with their own "self-evident" truths. Dr Bill concludes with an argument that the views of John Locke, held by the orthodox tradition in American history to be the key influence behind the Declaration, actually differed substantially from Jefferson's, as seen particularly in their views of property. For Locke, freedom was meaningless in the absence of property, whereas for Jefferson, the acquisition of property provided a means to effect change for the betterment of the common good, thus securing true happiness as defined in the Scottish Enlightenment. The academic orthodoxy however has reacted vehemently against Wills's work, effectively crushing any notion that Jefferson owed his political philosophy and views of humanity's role in nature to anyone other than Locke, and Dr Bill observes the great disservice this reaction has done to our modern understanding of the world in which the Framers lived and performed all their enduring work. ___________________ Welcome to the Virtual Center for the Study of the Constitution! The Virtual Center programming, hosted by Concord University (WV) Beckley Campus former President Dr Bill O'Brien, is available on the Head ON Radio Network (HORN) through the efforts of Bob Kincaid, Jon Fox, Ben Burch and the White Rose Society (www.whiterosesociety.org). Live show streams and information can be found at www.headonradionetwork.com and at www.prismwv.org. Recent years have seen repeated and increasingly brazen attempts to rewrite the history of the American Revolution and the foundation of the United States for modern political purposes. In this series of internet radio programming, Dr Bill explores the historical and philosophical underpinnings of American government, the events and the personages that combined, collided, and eventually resulted in the creation of government of, by, and for the people--and "all the rest of it."