The Two Big Questions

• The life of Thomas Jefferson poses two key philosophical questions…– What does the most important phrase in our

Declaration of Independence actually mean?– Does it matter if a person with significant historical

importance has terrible aspects to their character?• This is the question we will be focusing on!!!

Thomas Jefferson

The Good • Founding Father• Wrote the Declaration

of Independence• Considered a Top 5

President by may historians

• Founded the University of Virginia

The Bad• Owned slaves• Had children out of

wedlock with slaves• Called for extremely

bloody violence in French Revolution

Andrew Jackson

The Good• One of most democratic

Presidents• American people had some

of the most liberty in history

• Encouraged continued expansion of the United States

The Bad• Indian Removal Act of 1830

– Led to the Trail of Tears- 16,000 Cherokees forcefully removed from Southeast to present-day OK

• Leader during the deaths of thousands of Native Americans

John F. Kennedy

The Good• War hero• Strong leadership during

Cuban Missile Crisis• Created the Peace Corps• Advocate of civil rights-

helped MLK• NASA grew• Made Presidency and White

House a more personable thing

The Bad• Allegedly had weekly (near

daily) affairs• Support various overthrows

of elected foreign governments

Robert Oppenheimer, President Harry Truman, Crew Members of the Enola Gay

The Good• Demonstrated the

advancement of American technology

• Protected the United States• Essentially ended World

War II• Helped establish the U.S. as

a superpower

• Affected and killed hundreds of thousands of Japanese civilians (men, women, and children)

• http://www.atomicarchive.com/Docs/MED/med_chp10.shtml

• Changed the landscape of future conflicts

• Key part of fear in the Cold War

Phil Knight

The Good• Provides high quality shoes

to people around the world• http://

nikeinc.com/pages/the-nike-foundation

• Charity for multiple poverty organizations

• Donates millions to various causes annually

The Bad• 43 factories and 160,000

workers in Indonesia alone. • Make a mere $1.25 a day• http://

www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5uYCWVfuPQ

Steve Jobs

The Good• Donated tens of millions to

charity- $50 million to hospitals in CA

• Donated millions more to HIV research

• Brought amazing technology to the world

• Changed the way we live our lives

The Bad• Known to be a strict authoritarian

leader- Apple private security known to search people’s homes

• Self-document awful sweatshops in Asia- “Despite summer temperatures hitting 35 degrees, with 90 per cent humidity, there is no air-conditioning. Workers say some dormitories house more than 40 people and are infested with ants and cockroaches, with the noise and stench making it difficult to sleep.”