According to Thomas Jefferson, certain truths are self-evident. Are they?

Question

What may have been his incentive to think so?

Answer 1

By saying these truths are self-evident, he is relieved of the burden of proving that they are true. Also, by saying that all men are created equal, and are endowed with certain inalienable rights, he is just stating what it means to be human. In other words, you don't have to prove a tautology. To Jefferson and other political philosophers, it is self-evident that people are born with rights, and that human beings are equal. And by equal, I think he means that no one can claim to be more of a human being than anyone else. We are all equally human beings. Understood in this way, I would agree that these truths are self-evident.

Answer 2

Well, let's look at this from what he actually wrote:

"We hold these truths to be self-evident"
and then went on to list those things which this group agreed were self-evident.
Groups of people do this all the time.. christians agree on certain concepts as truth.. muslims, pagans, atheists, agnostics, buddhists, et al will do the same. however, they will not necessarily agree with other faiths about what is truth.

The incentive was that they wanted to form a country, and this was the document that would make that declaration for them.

Answer 3

Certain truths SEEM self-evident to me, so I'm sure they were to Jefferson, as well. Realistically, of course, the only self-evident truth is widely believed to be "I am conscious." It's the only thing we can truly find self-evident.

I'm sure, though, that you're referring Declaration of Independence here. In that case, the opening paragraph is important to note:


"When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation."


So what they seem to be saying is, as a rebel group that is forming it's own nation, they CHOOSE to be a group which holds these truths self-evident:


"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."


I'm sure they realized these things weren't actually self-evident, but they were forming a union where these things would be as inviolate as actual self-evident truths.

Answer 4

Well, here are some of the things he wrote:

"History I believe furnishes no example of a priest-ridden people maintaining a free civil government. This marks the lowest grade of ignorance, of which their political as well as religious leaders will always avail themselves for their own purpose. " – Thomas Jefferson to Baron von Humboldt, 1813

"The Christian god can easily be pictured as virtually the same god as the many ancient gods of past civilizations. The Christian god is a three headed monster; cruel, vengeful and capricious. If one wishes to know more of this raging, three headed beast-like god, one only needs to look at the caliber of people who say they serve him. They are always of two classes: fools and hypocrites."

"Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined and imprisoned; yet we have not advanced one inch towards uniformity." –Thomas Jefferson, Notes on Virginia, 1782.

"And the day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the supreme being as his father in the womb of a virgin will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerve in the brain of Jupiter. But may we hope that the dawn of reason and freedom of thought in these United States will do away with this artificial scaffolding, and restore to us the primitive and genuine doctrines of this most venerated reformer of human errors." –Thomas Jefferson, Letter to John Adams, April 11, 1823

"Religions are all alike – founded upon fables and mythologies."

"I do not find in orthodox Christianity one redeeming feature."

"Christianity is the most perverted system that ever shone on man."

"It does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are 20 gods, or no God. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg."

Answer 5

No.
"We hold these..." etc. was the result of debate and argument, and possibly compromise.
If it was really self evident, why would that have been necessary?

And I doubt very much that it had self-evidently occurred to them that freedom of religion would include witchcraft, or freedom of speech would include striptease. It wasn't self evident that proclaiming "liberty" was inconsistent with owning slaves.

But Rollo Tomassi is right. The statement avoids proving its assertion, which might have been difficult or caused division.
The UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights does something similar. Fine as an aspiration or ideal, much more difficult to prove that it's true or represents reality.

Answer 6

I certainly believe so - that all men (& women) are created equal. But you won't find that in the Bible, or the Torah, or The Koran. So I'm not sure it's appropriate for the R&S section.

Answer 7

He didn't say that all men "are" equal, but that all men are "created" equal, meaning that they all come into the world the same. Think about it, babies are not born prejudice, prejudice develops as we grow and look upon each other and judge each other, but when we are born, we are all pretty much the same.

Answer 8

I am sure that if he had known that people would eventually need disclaimers in manuals to not put small animals in microwaves then I think he would have been a lot more specific, yes.

Answer 9

I know that all men are not created equal.Some are spoiled more then others and some are poor when they deserve to be rich and some are rich when they deserve to be poor.That is not self evident but it is true.

Answer 10

It was the boldest contradiction to prevailing beliefs about society since "Turn the other cheek."