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Thomas Jefferson's Ethics and the Politics of Human Progress
Contributor(s): Helo, Ari (Author)
ISBN: 1107040787     ISBN-13: 9781107040786
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
OUR PRICE:   $115.90  
Product Type: Hardcover
Published: December 2013
Qty:
Additional Information
BISAC Categories:
- History | United States - 19th Century
Dewey: 973.460
LCCN: 2013013352
Series: Cambridge Studies on the American South
Physical Information: 1.1" H x 6.3" W x 9.1" (1.20 lbs) 298 pages
Themes:
- Chronological Period - 19th Century
 
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc.
Publisher Description:
Could Jefferson claim any consistency in his advocacy of democracy and the rights of man while remaining one of the largest slaveholders in Virginia? This extensive study of Jefferson's intellectual outlook suggests that, once we fully acknowledge the premises of his ethical thought and his now outdated scientific views, he could. Jefferson famously thought the human mind to be "susceptible of much improvement ... most of all, in matters of government and religion." Ari Helo's thorough analysis of Jefferson's understanding of Christian morality, atheism, contemporary theories of moral sentiments, ancient virtue ethics, natural rights, and the principles of justice and benevolence suggests that Jefferson refused to be a philosopher, and did so for moral reasons. This book finds Jefferson profoundly political in his understanding of individual moral responsibility and human progress.

Contributor Bio(s): Helo, Ari: - Ari Helo is currently a University Lecturer in History of Science and Ideas at the University of Oulu. He earned his PhD at the University of Tampere in 1999 with a doctoral dissertation examining Thomas Jefferson's political thought. He has taught intellectual history, American studies and cultural studies at numerous universities since 1996, and worked as a visiting researcher at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville for three years. Helo's articles, mainly in American intellectual history, have been published in Britain, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, The Netherlands and the United States, among them the widely noticed 'Jefferson, Morality, and the Problem of Slavery' with Peter Onuf in The William and Mary Quarterly (2003) and a survey article on Jefferson's political thought in the Cambridge Companion to Thomas Jefferson (2009).