Many ancient political philosophies including those that pre-date the birth of Christ continued to apply to America throughout its history and into our modern-age. In order to explore how such philosophies might have been applied, we will approach our thesis by imagining the ways renowned political philosophers would respond to America’s most historical events as they observe from the heavens.

House of Burgesses

On Monday July 30, 1619, the Burgesses awoke with the anticipation of their first meeting in Jamestown, Virginia. These representatives were elected following their arrival from the voyage to the New World. After being formerly subjected under the authority of both absolute and legislative monarchies, the English settlers decided it best to nominate their own representatives responsible for chartering legislation. Henceforth, the elected members would gather once a year at the House of Burgesses alongside their royal supervisor to determine the province’s tariff and community laws.

Socrates (470-399 B.C.), known widely for having valued the self-governance of individuals may smile fondly upon the settlers who stepped forth to define colonial laws. Although this self-governance is meant to be applied individually, one would assume Socrates would favor those who took the foundational steps to what would later lead to American freedom thus permitting individual right to independence.

Boston Massacre

On March 5, 1770, five civilian men were shot and killed by the British Army in Boston, Massachusetts. Boston was one of the first colonies to display a distaste toward British governance and influence in the states over the course of the 1760’s. In 1786, British troops were assigned to impose the Townsend Act in Boston. This legislation served to increase duties paid on imports and tax colonies in order to provide judges and governors. Although the local colonists fought to defy the British, they found themselves outnumbered. Many continue to argue over what initially caused this massacre. It is said that a crowd of angry settlers provoked a British sentinel standing guard outside of the house of the city customs. When the troops witnessed the event, they quickly intervened by shooting haphazardly at the crowd. Though it can not be proven, it is claimed that Captain Thomas Preston and nine of his men responsible for the shooting were found guilty of murder due to their severe reaction to the incident.

Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) would most likely respond to the issue in support of the court’s supposed decision to incriminate Preston and his men for the murder of those killed by the shooting. Although Aquinas was an advocate for law, he did not believe in the use of extreme coercion and this event certainly did not seem to call for such forces had it genuinely begun the way it is most commonly allegedly told. Had the group of men provoking the guard acquired a form of violence, perhaps Aquinas would have felt differently in terms of upholding legal authority through justifiable coercion.

Boston Tea Party

The event that would later become responsible for launching America’s fight for independence transpired at the Boston Harbor in Boston, MA on Thursday December 16, 1773. After experiencing the financial losses accompanied by winning the French and Indian War, Britain sought for ways to replenish economically. King George III resolved to tax American colonies in order to simultaneously counterbalance the expenses of their victory and ascertain authority over colonial governments that were beginning to stray from British rule. Parliament imposed this tax on the colonists’ tea by use of the Townsend Act. To heed this tax by purchasing tea was considered an act of unspoken acknowledgement of British sovereignty. Rather than succumb to this ultimatum, two hundred settlers ransacked three ships sent to the harbor by the East India Company tossing all the contents of tea overboard and into the water in protest.

John Locke (1632-1704) held that governments that do not endorse the wellbeing of the public may be opposed and overthrown in favor of a well-intentioned government. Similarly, Parliament’s decision to impose a tax on the colonies was one of a series of decisions that would only benefit British regulation and was not done so in light of the people. Therefore, Locke would have significant reason to approve of the colonists’ courageous resistance throughout this event.

Declaration of  Independence

Having overcome a gruesome Revolutionary War against Britain the previous year, the colonists had given up hope for their native lands’ peaceful acceptance of their recent acclaimed independence as settlers. Appointed by Congress in June, a committee of five men including John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Robert R. Livingston, and Roger Sherman were given the responsibility of composing a solemn document to define American liberty and separation from British powers. Primarily authored by Mr. Jefferson, the Declaration of Independence was formally implemented less than a month later on July 4, 1776.

Socrates (470-399 B.C.) would have been delighted to learn of America’s fight to become its own nation. The Declaration of Independence presented a new beginning for the settlers that were formerly under British rule. This document enabled colonials to possess a sense of security self-regulation as they worked together to ensure their freedom could never again be taken from them.

Bill of Rights

Following the enactment of the Declaration of Independence, the Founding Fathers worked together to proclaim a Bill of Rights to ensure humane and diplomatic treatment of the people. Once the legislation was formally chartered, the Constitution adopted the Bill of Rights on December 15, 1791. The bill protected Americans from any future event in which governmental leaders may be able to abuse their political power and echo a similar authority America had once experienced under British rule.

John Locke (1632-1704) believed in one’s basic human rights to “life, liberty, and property.” He also held that men are free and equal and should treat each other as such. He would have supported the government’s effort to preserve these rights for the people as well as their intention of distancing legislative and executive powers from one another.

Civil  War

Over the course of the mid-1800s, a sound divide became evident among citizens of the Northern and Southern regions of the U.S. Industrialization and immigration was at an all-time high in the north while southerners were primarily concerned agriculturally. As a result, a discord among the political concerns and national priorities of the north and south gradually began to unfold. Difference in opinion over the status of the Union, or democracy under the authority of President Abraham Lincoln at the time was found responsible for initially provoking the Civil War. However, later the war would become notoriously identified with the issue of slavery. Because the South did not acquire immigrants as the North had, they felt it necessary to continue utilizing slaves. While the Union Armies had four notable commanders including Winfield Scott, George B. McClellan, Henry W. Halleck, and Ulysses S. Grant, the Confederate Armies did not have a formal commander but were primarily lead by their own president, Jefferson Davis. The South sought to constitute their own independence from the North by separating and becoming a self-governed region. Regretfully, much blood was shed over the course of the four years of the Civil War prior to the victory of the North and the establishment of the 13th amendment which pledged the abolishment of slavery.

Aristotle (384-322 B.C.), an emphatic proponent of Despotic rule best seen in the association between master and slave would perhaps side most closely with the beliefs of the Southerners. Despotic rule is the belief that some people are by nature, slaves, while others are natural masters. Such slaves are found to require a master in order to guide them throughout life.

Plessy v. Ferguson

Although blacks were granted the right to vote in 1869, racism continued to spread throughout the South during the Reconstruction period. The previous equal protection among all citizens guaranteed in the Civil Rights Act of 1875 was overturned in the ruling of Plessy v. Ferguson on May 18, 1896. This case began when a man by the name of Homer Plessy refused to retire from a New Orleans train car that was strictly reserved for whites in an effort to draw attention to the questionable legality of segregation laws. Even though Plessy was only one-eighth black, he was still not permitted in their quarters. After several years of discussing the case, the Supreme Court agreed that separate but equal facilities were indeed constitutional if provided to people of color. Subsequently, a number of southern laws later coined as “Jim Crow” laws enabled segregation in schools, restaurants, restrooms, hospitals, and public transportation.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) assumed that civilization is what causes corruption among humans. When man is in the state of nature, he is untainted in his natural element. By developing a civil society, humans now face a great deal of comparison between one another in terms of wealth, rank, and class. Rousseau most-likely would have weighed in on the issue of segregation as an inevitable result of “amour-propre”, a sense of arrogance that develops in civil societies causing humans to find satisfaction in competing against the vulnerability of other individuals.

World War I

The first World War struck out a month after a Serbian nationalist assassinated the heir to Austria-Hungary throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife, Sophie on June 28, 1914. In addition to hostility among nations after the assassination, the outbreak of war was also a result of defending diplomatic rank, aggression against the Balkans, and impact of late combats. President Woodrow Wilson not only attempted to keep America out of the war but went so far as to seek a common ground that would end the war amongst Europeans. However when his efforts failed, the Zimmerman Telegraph and the events that would soon follow had a fatal influence on America’s decision to partake in the war against Germany on April 6, 1917. With America serving as a relentless and powerful ally against Germany, the German troops shortly found themselves with little defense and German allies quickly began to compose peace treaties among the nations. The war came to a final close on July 28, 1919 in the signing of the Treaty of Versailles and the end to the Ottoman Empire.

Plato (427-347 B.C.), adopted a deep understanding of cognitive optimism, the view that human beings are capable of acquiring truth and utilizing this information rationally in establishing the interests of mankind. In addition, Plato had faith in humanity’s ability to overcome their differences and reach a point of peaceful reconciliation. With this, one would assume Plato would side with President Woodrow Wilson’s efforts to pursue a means for agreement in an attempt to remain out of the war.

Woman Suffrage

On August 18, 1920, the fight for the right to vote was finally secured by women throughout the United States under the 19th amendment. Woman Suffrage although formally recognized as beginning in the mid-1800s had in reality been carrying on long before the voyage that would bring English settlers to America. The female opinion held little-to-no value in societies since essentially the stone age much less considered valid in terms of voting participation. Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott stepped forth in 1848 to host what would soon become pronounced as the beginning of the women’s rights movement at a convention in Seneca Falls, NY. The purpose of the convention was to debate the rights of women. The idea of women gaining the right to vote gradually turned into a heated debate that would have been disregarded had it not been for the persuasion proposed by Frederick Douglass, the only African American to attend the convention. Approximately sixty-eight women and thirty-two men out of a total of three-hundred attendees signed their names on the Declaration of Sentiments, a document intended to aid in the legalization of the female right to vote. After founding the National Women’s Party in 1913, Alice Paul and Lucy Burns lead peaceful protests in front of the White House until eventually finding it necessary to adopt more aggressive measures similar to those used in Britain. These actions resulted in the arrest of ten suffragists on the grounds of supposedly obstructing traffic while picketing in front of the White House in October, 1917. The incarcerated women did not end their protests there, however, as they did not believe their arrest to be justified. Rather, they protested within their confines by soliciting a hunger strike in their prison. Shortly after their early release due to the media’s coverage of the unjust treatment these women were subjected to while in confinement, the 19th amendment was ratified granting women the right to vote.

Aristotle (364-322 B.C.), firmly held the ideals of marital rule, the belief that “the male is by nature more capable of leadership than the female, unless he is constituted in some way contrary to nature.” As women’s freedoms steadily evolved from the sole purpose of wives and mothers who answered to their husbands and began to emerge into the modernization of the working-class woman, Aristotle would have presumably denied the right of female voting. As it may be, encouraging women’s right to vote would permit freedom of thought and decisions outside of a husband’s guidance.

World War II

Adolf Hitler’s attack on Poland in September 1939 resulted in a domino effect directly leading to the onslaught of World War II. When Britain and France called for a war against Germany, little action followed until 1940. As Germany became tireless, they responded to the inactivity by initiating consecutive attacks on Denmark, Norway, Belgium, the Netherlands, and France. A few months later, Germany finally met their match in an air attack against Britain’s Royal Air Force. Britain overcame the attack by utilizing efficient training and defense measures. Despite their loss, serving as Germany’s ally, Italy began to occupy new regions including Greece and North Africa with Germany’s help in 1941. As the year progressed, and Germany’s militant powers grew stronger, they embarked to take on the Soviet Union. However, having misjudged the SSR’s numbers, Germany was forced to flee in 1945 as the Russians initiated a pursuit against them throughout eastern Europe and into Germany. With the help of the United States, Britain took the German forces head on in the D-Day Invasion resulting in Germany’s final surrender.

Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679), would have stood strongly in support of Hitler’s dictatorship and desire to consistently gain in power. Hobbes believed that civilization’s only hope to live in harmony is under the rule of a single entity that could not be held accountable to the people. He claimed that to insist otherwise would result in turmoil, fear, and violence such as the battles in World War II.

In addition, Niccolò Machiavelli (1469-1527) may have also weighed in on Hitler’s leadership abilities. Having been known to believe that it is better to be feared than loved and rulers are often called to defend their individual power above the needs of the people. To do so, he supported the conscious representation of integrity rather than true integrity alone.

Pearl Harbor

On December 7, 1941, Japanese aircrafts took America by surprise when they attacked the Hawaiian islands. Their mission was to sabotage as many U.S. military aircrafts and battleships as possible. They achieved their goal by observing the schedules of the American Navy in the area such as when their ships would dock as well as their specific locations. In doing so, the Japanese were able to devise a plan of attack that caught America entirely off guard with essentially no time to act in defense. Japan’s success attack on Pearl Harbor resulted in the U.S.’s immediate response to launch an irrefutable war between the two nations leading to numerous naval battles including the Battle of Midway in which Japan was defeated. In spite of their loss, Japan continued to fight against the U.S. in several more battles throughout 1944 before finally surrendering in August of 1945 when the Americans fired nuclear warhead on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) may have justified Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor through the use of social contract theory. This theory claims that political and ethical principles are influenced and defined by a compromise among people in order to modernize societies. In other words, because violence had become a rational solution to addressing conflict, unexpected attacks such as the one on Pearl Harbor had not only become acceptable but would act as an event that would continue to shape the standard of future war morality among the nations.

Brown v. Board of Education

On Monday May 17, 1974, the Supreme Court overturned the rulings of Plessy v. Ferguson in the landmark case, Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka under the authority of Justice Earl Warren. During this time, states were formerly allowed to segregate students by ethnicity within their public school systems. This meant a complete separation of black and white students assigning them to their own set of instructors, buildings, school buses, and facilities. The case originated when 21 African American parents were denied the right to register their kids in local schools and were instead required to enroll their children in segregated facilities. With Oliver L. Brown serving as the main plaintiff leading a total of twelve other parents, the court ruled that the use of segregated academic institutions would remain inherently unconstitutional in a unanimous 9-0 majority decision.

Plato (427-347 B.C.) would have likely approved of the Supreme Court’s decision in Brown v. Board of Education. He strongly held that humanity may succeed so long as it is not a cause from the suffering of others. With this, it would appear that by protecting the rights of all individuals no matter their ethnic background, society took a step that would radically improve the success of all citizens without discrimination.

9/11

Tuesday September 11, 2001 rapidly became known as one of the most tragic days in U.S. history in terms of significant terrorist attacks. At 8:46 am, citizens across the nation turned their televisions on to see every morning news channel covering live footage of American Airlines Flight 11 hijacked by Mohammed Atta fly headfirst into the North Tower of New York’s World Trade Center. Seventeen minutes later, United Airlines Flight 175 hit the World Trade Center’s South Tower. Passengers and flight crew of Flight 77 notified family members and the FAA of their hijacking before the plane crashed into the west side of the Pentagon in Washington D.C. at 9.37 am. A half hour later, the fourth and final hijacked plane, Flight 93 crashed into a field located in Somerset County, Pennsylvania when passengers attempted to overthrow their hijackers to save themselves. While the attacks occurred within just over an hour, the long-term effects of this attack by Al-Qaeda remain inexplicable. Approximately 3,265 people were killed in the aftermath including husbands, wives, parents, children, friends, and dearly loved ones. The attack left America in a state of restoration prompting new security measures such as the adoption of TSA and the PATRIOT Act as well as stricter regulation of public safety through national defense programs such as the Department of Homeland Security.

Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) might have found the attacks on 9/11 inevitable as his personal philosophies held little hope for a peaceful society. He believed that humans’ “capacity to reason is as fragile as our capacity to know.” Thus, our ability to handle disagreements among nations are most-likely to result in acts of violence and war. Because of our natural tendencies, Hobbes assumed that society would remain in jeopardy of civil conflict.

Legalization of Marijuana

Prior to 2012, marijuana was formerly classified as a universally illegal drug except in specific states which permitted its medicinal use with a professionally issued prescription. However, Colorado and Washington were the first states to adopt laws allowing the recreational use of marijuana in 2012 which set the stage for a number of other states to embrace similar state legislation. Today, six additional states consent to recreational marijuana including: Oregon, California, Nevada, Alaska, Massachusetts, and Maine. Twenty-five states hold laws that solely remain to legally issue medicinal marijuana. As many continue to argue that while marijuana is a mind-altering substance, it should be identified as a safe drug and may present evidence of significantly less risks presented in comparison to alcohol. Hence, the number of states considering the ratification of laws on marijuana seemingly grow today.

While drug use was common even in the age of many of the philosophers that weigh in on this piece, rationality might cause one to assume that nearly all of the philosophers would agree that drug use today alters one’s ability to reason. Mind-altering substances may have been a leading proponent of many philosophies that continue to be held today. However, in a society where clarity and reasonable judgment are often a necessity in any career, our philosophers might agree that there is no need for such substances in the present. In addition, the majority of those using drugs recreationally today no longer appear to utilize them as a key unlocking their minds to the theoretically unknown. Even so, the current use of such drugs tend to lead to addiction or the seeking of harder substances. In other words, what may have once been used as a tool to explore the depths of one’s mind is now a weakness in those who can not function without it.

Obergefell v. Hodges

On Thursday June 26, 2015, the fight for same-sex marriage was finally won in a 5-4 decision under the Supreme Court. This case scrutinized the constitutionality of regional bans on same-sex marriage and it’s legal recognition from other states ultimately identifying such bans as in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment and should be defended by the equal protection and due process clauses. The case was initially brought to the court’s attention when James Obergefell’s husband, John Arthur passed away shortly after their marriage in 2013. Knowing Arthur suffered a terminal illness and did not have long to live, the two filed the lawsuit upon the discovery that their marriage would not be formally recognized on Arthur’s death certificate in their home state of Ohio. The case continued to be contemplated for nearly five months before the court ruled in favor of Obergefell thus legalizing same-sex marriage throughout the U.S.

Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) had faith in the purpose of law to uphold the common good of all people. In addition, he believed that law is responsible for the condition of social order. In this case, constitutionalizing same-sex marriage not only condoned those who supported the plaintiff’s cause but also set the stage for what may be deemed socially acceptable. By doing so, society has influenced lawmakers to base their decisions upholding the popular interests of the people.

To conclude, it can be seen that in spite of ancient texts documenting the philosophies of Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Aquinas, Machiavelli, Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau, their theories continue to remain applicable throughout U.S. history and our contemporary society. Women and people of color may not have been viewed in the same light as they are today, but this does not change an individual’s innate right to a good life. Had these philosophers been born in the present age, one would imagine their beliefs would apply to all individuals according to social acceptance and the impression of equality. Although times have changed since the age of enlightenment, morality appears to continue to persist with little alteration.