APAD: Life, Liberty and The Pursuit of Happiness

Meaning: The three most important rights as defined in the Declaration of

Independence.

 

Background: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created

equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights,

that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" - Thomas

Jefferson, The Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776.

 

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They, the Founding Fathers, must have debated on the structure, the wording, and

above all the message. Life and liberty are straightforward but 'the pursuit of

happiness' is ingenious. Happiness is slippery, ephemeral, and a bottomless pit.

As soon as a desire is satisfied, the mind at once craves for more or something

different. The pursuit itself cannot be more real and perennial, however, and

the collective wealth is a byproduct of this burning call for fulfillment. The authors

must have been keenly aware that the new nation they were bringing upon the

earth stands on the strength of the story alone.

 

三公理。据说美国宪法是按牛顿力学的原则建立在这三个公理上的。

还有这说法？：））

Any reference for this claim?

The founding fathers were so great that

they defined these three most important rights

in the Declaration of Independence.

The ideas that formed the Constitution, Part 17: Sir Isaac N

https://i2i.org/the-ideas-that-formed-the-constitution-part-17-sir-isaac-newton/

 

https://www.jstor.org/stable/2109303

 

 

+1 Such elaborate machinery of the three ideals.

Superb:Balance and order. All very Newtonian-1776-now

The Scientific Revolution, and particularly Newton’s work, taught men that the universe wasn’t willful or chaotic, but governed by rules of order. Once you knew the rules, the physical universe became predictable. The physical world was, in 18th-century parlance, a “mechanical” place.

So be it: 1776–present

 

Effect on the Constitution’s Structure

Much of the final Constitution resembles an interlocked and finely tuned machine. As Charles Carroll of Carrollton wrote:

“The three distinct powers of the federal Govt. are skilfully [sic] combined so as to balance each other, by that reciprocal check & counterpoise, which the most approved writers on Govt. consider as its chief perfection … [T]he several State-Governments will always keep it within its own & proper sphere of action: [T]hus while it restrains the State-Governments within their orbits, it is by them retained within its own; acting, & acted upon it will produce that order, that stability in the civil, which we see exists in the physical world, where if I may compare great things to small, every planet, every center of each system attracting & attracted, repelling, & repelled keeps that station, & rolls within those spheres, which the great Author of all being has prescribed to each.”

Further exemplifying the intricate and balanced structure is the Constitution’s Article V, which sets forth the amendment process. Madison was its principal draftsman, and it shows that he shared his generation’s “mechanical” mode of thought:

Article V prescribes two ways of proposing amendments—a more democratically based congressional method and a state-government-based convention method. For Congress to consider proposing, only a voting majority need agree; but to actually propose, two-thirds of each house must agree. Conversely, for a convention to consider an amendment, two-thirds of the states must agree; but for the convention to propose only a voting majority of states need agree. Paralleling the two ways of proposing are the two ways of ratifying: by popularly elected state conventions (considered the more democratic mode) or by state legislatures (more state-government based). Both methods of ratification require approval by three-fourths of the states, a margin that ensures both widespread state agreement and widespread popular agreement.

The Pursuit of Happiness: It focuses on a process of action

The people who wrote this were slave owners.

I'd be careful. The process could be unhappy&it can kill:-)

A good reminder.

not really historical: the founding fathers were slaves UK

missing the point: "The Pursuit of Happiness" goal

Missing the point is what I do best :-)

Wow ~ ~ thanks 4 sharing ~ ~