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Hofstadter Summary: “The Founding Fathers: The Age of Realism” Summary of Section: I The reasoning behind the Constitution of the United States is presented as “based upon the philosophy of Hobbes and the religion of Calvin. It assumes the natural state of m ....

Middle of Essay
.... heirs” of the seventeenth-century England republicanism with its opposition to arbitrary rule and faith in popular sovereignty. Thus, the paradoxical fears of the advance in democracy, and of a return to the extreme right emerged. The awareness that both military dictatorship and a return to monarchy were being seriously discussed in some quarters propelled the Constitutional framers such as John Jay to bring to attention. II Consistent to eighteenth-century ethos left the Constitution-makers with great faith in universals. They believed in an inexorable view of a self-interested man. Feeling that all me were naturally inclined to be bad they sou ....