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The Age of Reason(Revolutionary
Period)Rationalists
The Age of Reason
The Age of Reason, or the Enlightenment, began in Europe with the rationalist philosophers and scientists of the seventeenth century.
Rationalism is the belief that we can arrive at truth by using our reason rather than by relying on the authority of the past, on religious faith, or on intuition.
The emergence of modern science and the scientific method had much to do with this new emphasis on reason and free inquiry.
The Puritans vs… Sir Isaac Newton (God as a clockmaker), René Descartes ( “I think, therefore I am.”),
1763
• End of the French and Indian War
• France and England war over control for of the colonies
• All happy at the end of the war
BUTBUT
King George imposed regulations that colonists felt unfair
Stamp Act (raised taxes to pay war debt)Stamps burned, distributors beaten
Stamp act repealed
Other acts follow and colonist boycott- British troops sent to Boston leads to Boston Massacre (five Americans killed when in a mob)
Tea ActBostonians dressed as Indians and dumped tea
into harbor
Coercive ActsColonists later named then “Intolerance Acts”
No regular public meetingsTroops could use colonists’ homesBoston Harbor closed
1774- colonial leaders met in Philadelphia at the First Continental Congress
1775700 British troops met 70 minutemen (8
Americans died)British moved to Concord where “shot heard
round the world” occurred
GAME ON!GAME ON!
1776Colonies declare Independence
1781French, African-American, General
Washington’s soldiers met Cornwallis who surrendered
Literature of the Period
Public writings (as opposed to the private, soul-searching of the Puritans)Political speeches
Some poetryPersuasive writingsThe “arts” grew
Dramatic artsPortraitsNOAH WEBSTER: (post Revolutionary War)
United States should have its own form of English languageTraveled all over East and South, added words
Chowder, handy, bullfrog, hickory, skunk, etc.
New spellingsHonour & humour = honor & humorMusick & publick = music & publicCentre & theatre = center & theater
Effects
PatriotismInstill prideCommon agreement about issues “American character”Teach values
Reviewo Genre/Style
o Political pamphlets
o Travel writing
o Persuasive
o speeches
o Effectso Patriotism
o Pride
o Agreement
o American character
o values
o Basic Beliefso Reason & science over faith
o Man is naturally good, not evil
o Deism
? Deism ?• The idea that God is not a power that controls
everything. • Saw God as more of a humanitarian, not vengeful• He created the universe, but left it up to the people
to figure out how to work it, or to figure out the natural laws.
• Rationalists were deists and thought all could be figured out through science.
• {Think of the on-going debate over evolution and one gets pretty good picture of how Puritans and Rationalists differ.}
Most Influential Writers
Benjamin FranklinThomas JeffersonThomas PainePatrick Henry
Thomas Paine’s Common Sense was such an appeal. Published in 1776, it was the most influential of many Revolutionary pamphlets and was read by virtually every American within months of its appearance. The very phrase common sense had come to mean the reasoning ability that all people share. Paine argued that we should seek independence in order to restore the natural rights that were evident to our reason but that had been taken away from the British. “’Tis repugnant to reason,” he wrote, “to the universal order of things, to all examples from former ages, to suppose that this continent can long remain subject to any external power.”
Benjamin Franklin’s Autobiography
The unquestioned masterpiece of the Age of Reason
Franklin used the personal narrative, a form that was common in Colonial America. He separated it from much of its religious justification (the Puritan impulse toward self-examination). Then he molded it into what became a classic American pattern: the rags-to-riches story.
Written in clear, witty prose, this charming account of the development of a self-made American provided the model for a story that would be told again and again. It appears in the moralistic stories about the office boy by Horatio Alger and in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby.
-from Benjamin Franklin’s Autobiography
“I never doubted the existence of the deity, that He made the world, and governed it with His providence; that the most acceptable service of God was the doing good to man; that our souls are immortal; and that all crime will be punished and virtue rewarded either here or hereafter; these I esteemed the essentials of every religion, and being to be found in all the religions we had in our country I respected them all.”
Let’s take a look…
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