On Horkheimer’s Philosophy

Thomas Jefferson’s thought on the democratic political system not only combined the very concrete and realistic political practice in the United States at that time,but also combined his deep understanding and thinking after his traveling in Europe.It not only inherited the rich achievements of modern European political theories,but also took into account the reality of the independence struggle and political construction of the North American people,thus forming a relatively complete and systematic theoretical system of political philosophy.In view of this,this paper tries to sort out the system structure of Jefferson’s political philosophy at the macro level.It should also be noted that once the theoretical system is constructed,it means that the theoretical parts of the system should be self-consistent.In other words,there are no obvious contradictions,oppositions and conflicts between them,but they are internally organic and unified.Therefore,it is one of the research purposes of this paper to grasp the main contents of Jefferson’s views on rights,democracy and freedom and to clarify the internal logic among them.Finally,although it is important to master the main content of Jefferson’ s political philosophy,it is more important to form a dialectical understanding of it.On the one hand,we should affirm the positive revelation or significance in it;on the other hand,we should not ignore its limitations.This is an important step from theoretical input to theoretical output and from objective knowledge to subjective recognition.The first chapter briefly introduces the research purpose,significance,research status and research methods of this paper.The second chapter carefully sorts out the historical and theoretical background of Jefferson’s personal life and political philosophy,clarifies the historical problems he faced,and traces which theories and thoughts laid the theoretical foundation for him.The third chapter elaborates the main content of Jefferson’ s political philosophy:what is natural right,the dichotomy between natural and civil rights and the right to revolution.In the democratic view,it analyzes the balances of power,preventing tyranny,and the majority is better than the minority democracy.In the aspect of freedom,it explains freedom of religious belief,freedom of press and freedom of news.The fourth chapter analyzes the shortcomings and positive significance of Jefferson’s political philosophy.Chapter five summarizes the whole thesis.