1. American Literature 1700- 1820 The Enlightenment and the Age of Reason

2. A new way of seeing the basic nature of the world The eighteenth century (1700s) in America is known as the Age of Enlightenment. In this period, a whole new way of seeing the basic nature of the world (including God) emerged. In this new view both kings and the aristocracy – the entrenched ruling class – lost their authority to rule. Likewise, the Christian church – that is, the Catholic church and all other Christian denominations (Protestants) – lost much of its power over people’s lives.

3. At the same time, modern science began to emerge, with its emphasis on empirical thinking (seeing is believing) and rational deduction. In this new atmosphere things like the spectral evidence of the Salem Witch Trials would have been laughed out of the courtroom.

4. Superstition yields to science In the place of the old religious dogmas, there sprang up religious rationalists. In the place of the aristocracy and its notions of a permanent ruling class (based in part on primogeniture) there arose political philosophers. And in the place of superstition came scientists.

5. Jefferson objected to the idea of entrenched powers Thomas Jefferson (along with Benjamin Franklin, James Madison, John Adams, Thomas Paine and some of the other major Bad Dudes who formed our country) objected to the idea of entrenched powers, like the English monarchy and the aristocracy which supported it, including the governors – loyal to the King of England – who ran the colonies.

7. The Enlightenment provided the philosophical basis of the American Revolution. And while imperfectly done, for it did not address the terrible problem of slavery, the American Revolution was an enlightened concept of government whose most profound documents may have been the American Declaration of Independence and United States Constitution.

8. So what caused this new revolution in thought? Some of the radical ideas of these new men were rooted in the classical worlds of Rome and Greece, which almost all of them had studied since youth. John Locke, an English philosopher, took the ideas of the Roman Senator Cicero, and brought them to his modern audience. Locke’s biggest contributions were the ideas of “natural rights” and the “social contract.”

9. All people are inherently equal and free Locke argued that all people are inherently equal and free and that legitimate governments were not based on divine hierarchies where God appointed Kings, but came from agreements among men where they surrendered only some freedoms to protect their natural right to “life, liberty, and property.” The people do this by forming a social contract in which they consent to give up a certain amount of power to a government dedicated to maintaining the well-being of the whole.

10. The people legitimize the government (and not the other way around) The people also give up one right, the right to judge and punish other persons, which is permitted in the state of nature, but left to the legal system for humans. Citizens began to see themselves on the same level as their leaders, subject to the same shortcomings and certainly subject to criticism if so deserved. Source http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/John+Locke

11. The Age of Reason Rejected… The Puritan idea of predestination. They rejected unquestioning faith in miracles, holy books, and the divinity of priests.

12. Age of Reason accepted: That God exists and created and governs the universe. That God gave humans the ability to reason. The belief that the universe operated by a rational formula that can be understood by any intelligent person, an idea proposed by Sir Isaac Newton (whose work from 1687 is the basis for the entire science of Physics.). The idea that order can be found everywhere in the natural world; and they found it not in religion but in the new science.

13. What happened to the Church? Deism was the new religious movement that was a faith without church or churchmen. It was validated by mathematics, scientific observation, and logic instead of divine revelation. Jefferson and Franklin, among others, were deists. Deism holds that reason and observation of the natural world, without the need for organized religion, can determine that the universe is the product of an all-powerful creator. You don’t need a priest or a church to tell you what’s right. The dominating idea of Hell faded and the gentler God of natural philosophy replaced the wrathful God of the Puritans.

14. “I Just Believe in Science, Okay!?” “Know then thyself, presume not God to scan/The proper study of mankind is man.” (Alexander Pope) What does that mean?

15. Common Beliefs 1. Faith in natural goodness - a human is born without taint or sin; the concept of tabula rasa or blank slate. 2. Perfectibility of a human being - it is possible to improve situations of birth, economy, society, and religion. 3. The sovereignty of reason – God and His laws can be deduced by the thinking individual, without the need for a church 4. Universal benevolence - the attitude of helping everyone. 5. Outdated social institutions cause unsociable behavior - religious, social, economic, and political institutions which have not modernized force individuals into unacceptable behavior.

16. The writers of this period had 1. A searching inquiry in all aspects of the world around. 2. Interest in the classical thought of Greece and Rome 3. Interest in Nature and natural rights 4. Interest in science and scientific experiments. 5. Optimism - experiments in utopian communities 6. A sense of a person's duty to succeed. 7. A constant search of the self – with emphasis on individualism in: a. personal religion; b. study of the Bible for personal interpretation.

17. References Sage, H,J. The Enlightenment in America, 2012. Retrieved from http://sageamericanhistory.net/colonies_empire/topics/enlighten.htm http://sageamericanhistory.net/colonies_empire/topics/enlighten.htm ------- Norton Anthology of American Literature, 2006 W.W. Nrton & Company. Susan M. Pojer & Horace Greely HS. (2016), The Age of Reason and Enlightenment. NY. Retrieved from http://www.menifee.k12.ky.us/userfiles/147/Classes/16552/Age%20of%20Enlightenment%20 Powerpoint.ppt