Thomas Jefferson

<p> Much of the scholarship on Thomas Jefferson characterizes him as a consummate immoralist. Yet he had a keen interest in morality and most of his reading--when he was not immersed in politics--was for moral study. Jefferson once told his physician Vine Utley that he seldom went to sleep without first reading something morally inspiring.</p><p> Some Jefferson scholars consider him at best a moral dilettante with incoherent views. Others see him as a Stoic interested in virtue as measured by both intentions and outcomes who in later life became an Epicurean weighing pleasure versus ends.</p><p> Drawing on a careful reading of his writings and an examination of his known readings on morality this study argues that Jefferson developed early a consistent moral sense--Stoical in essence and focused on his own moral improvement--and maintained it throughout his life.</p>