Of course our founding fathers were educated in the accepted way, with the classics, the history of the ancient world, and the Bible. Many assume that this was a fine foundation for building a new nation, a new state, a new society. But one can doubt this. An objective history of the ancient world and its written classics that survived can lead to a less than adulatory inheritance. Some would pick the Confucian heritage as better and more useful. Others might have other ideas. Our classical heroes are heroes because they were made into heroes for a variety of ideological purposes; they were often much less than heroes. Do we really think Washington wanted to emulate Cincinnatus in leaving office? Was Cicero all that noble or was he yet another unprincipled partisan in Roman electoral crimes and passions? Does the New Testament really tell us much about morality and virtue that the Old Testament did not? How reliable are the biblical and classical writers? Since most rulers from ancient times until the 19th century thought they were following the ancients, we too have bought that notion, but it may be untrue and less than useful.
In Response to: First Principles: What America’s Founders Learned from the Greeks and Romans and How That Shaped Our Country