Thomas Jefferson: Uncovering His Unique Philosophy and Vision by M. Andrew Holowchak

Thomas Jefferson: Uncovering His Unique Philosophy and Vision Reviews

• 
  Paul B.

  Thomas Jefferson did not write philosophical essays. He did fill his voluminous correspondence with philosophical reflections. Some are mere aphorisms, while others sketch arguments. When the correspondence is read against the background of what we know about Jefferson's reading, it is possible to piece together a more or less comprehensive picture of his philosophical views.
  M. Andrew Holowchak presents Jefferson as a normative theorist with views on education, religion and epistemology that were derived to support his driving interests in ethics and political theory.

  As Holowchak notes, there is some disagreement as to whether Jefferson should be taken seriously as an original philosophical thinker. To my mind, Holowchak settles the case with this book. Philosophy is often the reassembly of parts, rather than de novo invention. Holowchak's extensive acquaintance with Jefferson's correspondence allows him to piece together a more sophisticated libertarianism than we typically get these days, and to display how Jefferson was able to avoid pernicious forms of relativism in ethics and philosophy of science. At the same time, I think Holowchak's approach underplays the sense in which, for Jefferson (and like Socrates or Wittgenstein), philosophy is not something you read, it's something you do.

  Nevertheless, training in the discipline of philosophy and a lifetime of teaching it creates a sensitivity toward Jefferson's writings that even the best historians seem to lack. I have only read two other books, Adrienne Koch's
  The Philosophy of Thomas Jefferson and Garry Will's
  Inventing America: Jefferson's Declaration of Independence that display this sensitivity, though there are probably others. Holowchak's version of Jefferson is more comprehensive and better supported by Jefferson's actual words than either. We are living in a time when there are lots of authors aiming to cast Jefferson as the source of all America's sins against humanity. Holowchak mentions these arguments mainly to rebut them. While I think he is often too forgiving of Jefferson's flaws, he is certainly right to counter the extravagant exaggerations of some 21st century assassins.

  In this connection, I suppose it is important for prospective readers to know that Holowchak is also the author of
  Framing a Legend: Exposing the Distorted History of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings, which I have not read. Readers of Thomas Jefferson: Uncovering His Unique Philosophy and Vision will not find Hemings anywhere. I suppose Holowchak feels he has dealt not only with that topic, but also with Jefferson's relationship to slavery more generally. (If these comments are mystifying, go look at the GoodReads' reviews of
  Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings: An American Controversy). I think this book is worth reading nonetheless, though I must also warn that you should be prepared for sentences like, "Jefferson is essaying to eschew adherence to a one-size-fits-all conception of university-level education," (p. 289).