Browsing Milton Konvitz American Ideals Lectures by Title

Now showing items 25-44 of 46

    • American Ideals 25. The Stoics, Part 2 

      Konvitz, Milton R. (1973)
      For Stoics, the real man is the internal man. The real man must be indifferent to what is external to him. True Stoics, Professor Konvitz explains, acted in accordance with virtue and knowledge regardless of their personal ...

    • American Ideals 26. The Stoics, Part 3 

      Konvitz, Milton R. (1973)
      The Stoics recognized that man is social by nature and extended the horizon of human obligations to all of humankind, where the earlier Greek philosophers as well as the Hebrews saw these obligations limited to their own ...

    • American Ideals 27. The Stoics, Part 4 

      Konvitz, Milton R. (1973)
      The Stoics’ basic principles as explained by Dr. Konvitz are defined as including the obligations implied by the Stoic concept of self, the cosmopolitan idea of a single humanity, the existence of a common moral law, the ...

    • American Ideals 28. Thomas More 

      Konvitz, Milton R. (1973)
      More’s life in connection to Henry V’s dissolution of the English Catholic Church and Henry’s assumption of the supreme leadership of the subsequent Anglican Church is discussed. Thomas More’s trial for treason for this ...

    • American Ideals 29. Utopia 

      Konvitz, Milton R. (1973)
      More postulates a mythical society based on the laws of nature (wisdom, temperance, justice, and virtue) and a theology that includes a belief in Divine Providence, the existence of an immortal soul in humans, and reward ...

    • American Ideals 30. Reform in Utopia 

      Konvitz, Milton R. (1973)
      Professor Konvitz suggests that More is almost modern in his approach to the social problems he identifies. Utopians advocated common education and common work experiences for every man as a way of achieving recognition ...

    • American Ideals 31. Religion in Utopia 

      Konvitz, Milton R. (1973)
      Utopians’ religious beliefs are again touched upon by Professor Konvitz. Those who did not share these views could not hold public office and could not discuss their alternative views in public but were encouraged to do ...

    • American Ideals 32. Pleasure in Utopia 

      Konvitz, Milton R. (1973)
      More rejects Stoic and Christian asceticism, Dr. Konvitz tells us, in favor of pleasure and pleasant experiences as a proper expression of natural reason so long as the exercise of personal pleasure does not hurt others ...

    • American Ideals 33. John Locke 

      Konvitz, Milton R. (1973)
      Professor Konvitz states that John Locke was one of the most influential political philosophers of the last two centuries. Locke’s writings were the intellectual basis for many of the ideas embodied in the American Declaration ...

    • American Ideals 34. State of Nature 

      Konvitz, Milton R. (1973)
      Locke saw man in the state of nature as governed by reason. In this state, all are equal and independent. No one should harm another. This conceptualization is what the Declaration of Independence speaks of as the “Laws ...

    • American Ideals 35. Natural Rights 

      Konvitz, Milton R. (1973)
      In the Second Treatise on Government and A Letter Concerning Toleration, Locke spells out the hitherto only implied concept of human rights presumed by the concept of natural law. These include the right of property, which ...

    • American Ideals 36. Religion 

      Konvitz, Milton R. (1973)
      Locke’s views on religious toleration are a “tremendously important contribution” on this subject, which anticipated the First Amendment to the Constitution and subsequent Supreme Court decisions. Professor Konvitz argues ...

    • American Ideals 37. Sovereignty 

      Konvitz, Milton R. (1973)
      For Locke, Professor Konvitz suggests, political sovereignty is dependent upon the existence of a social contract between the sovereign, the legislature, and the people who, through this contract, agree to be governed. It ...

    • American Ideals 38. Revolution 

      Konvitz, Milton R. (1973)
      Revolution occurs when the grievances of the people are very great. A sovereign and a legislature rule by the trust of the people, Locke maintained, and when such trust is broken, revolution should result. Underlying Locke’s ...

    • American Ideals 39. Emerson's Nature 

      Konvitz, Milton R. (1973)
      Professor Konvitz’s introduction to Emerson has not been recorded here, and this lecture appears incomplete. For Emerson, Professor Konvitz asserts, man’s mind is prior to the natural world and that world is as man perceives ...

    • American Ideals 40. Emerson's History 

      Konvitz, Milton R. (1973)
      Professor Konvitz explores Emerson’s critique of history, its impact on human lives in the present, and its relation as a continuum in the evolution of man’s understanding of universal moral principles. Man makes his own ...

    • American Ideals 41. Emerson's Evil 

      Konvitz, Milton R. (1973)
      To understand William James’s pluralism, suggests Professor Konvitz, one must understand the influence of Emerson’s view of evil. Emerson postulates that every evil is utilized in some way for good, and there is an ...

    • American Ideals 42. William James 

      Konvitz, Milton R. (1973)
      As a philosopher, Professor Konvitz explains, James rejected that the scientific method was the only method by which to arrive at the truth. Advocates of religion, James argued, have a right to assert the moral and spiritual ...

    • American Ideals 43. William James and God 

      Konvitz, Milton R. (1973)
      Professor Konvitz asserts that insofar as they believe there are limits to intelligence, to logic, and to the scientific method, Emerson and James agree. James, on the other hand, rejects the concept of an absolute deity, ...

    • American Ideals 44. Final Ideals Class 

      Konvitz, Milton R. (1974)
      At the end of the last class for which he would be the formal instructor, in 1974, Professor Konvitz offers a touching valedictory, thanking his current and all his previous students for the privilege of being their teacher. ...