American Studies (미국학)

Seoul National University American Studies Institute (서울대학교 미국학연구소)
권호 표지

Politico-philosophical Shadow of Early American Democracy

  • Received : 2020.12.06
  • Accepted : 2020.12.26
  • Published : 2020.12.31

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Abstract

The purpose of this essay is to reexamine the overlooked politico-philosophical paradoxes of early American democracy. From its beginning, the American Republic was predicated on the conceived notion of political autonomy and independence from the British Empire. Those who fought for the cause, as expressed in the Declaration of Independence, invented and internalized so-called self-evident propositions which served as the key ideological foundation of the American Republic. Moreover, the unique historical ontology of American democracy was coupled with the politico-philosophical necessity of collective fantastical belief in the equation of selfhood with nationhood. By delving into how particular philosophical ideas and political concepts helped shape the visionary imagination of framers and their contemporaries, I investigate the way in which philosophy and politics are constitutive of the ideological fabric of the substantial-both conceptual and practical-paradoxes of the early American democracy.

Keywords

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