Age of Reason [Compatibility Mode]

8/2/2019 Age of Reason [Compatibility Mode]

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The Age of Reason1687 1789

The EnlightenmentThe Neoclassic Age

Augustan Age

The Age of Reason1687 1789

FORERUNNERSGalileo

aconDescartesHobbes

The Age of Reason is dated from 1687, when Issac Newton published his work on gravity, Principia Mathematica

The Age of Reason1687 1789The Age of Reason The Enlightenment 1687 1789

Immanuel Kant: Enlightenment is mans leaving his self caused immaturity. Immaturity is the incapacity to use ones intelligence without the guidance of another. Such immaturity is self caused if it is not caused b lack of intelli ence but b lack of determination and courage to use ones intelligence without being guided by another. Sapere Aude![Dare to know!] Have the courage to use your own intelligence! is therefore the motto of the enlightenment.

The Age of Reason 1687 1789

Through laziness and cowardice a large part of mankind, even after nature has freed them from alien guidance, gladly remain immature. . . . It is so comfortable to be a minor! If I have a book which provides meaning for me, a pastor who has conscience

, , then I do not need to exert myself. . . .Therefore there are only a few who have pursued a firm path and have succeeded in escaping from immaturity by their own cultivation of the mind. (Immanuel Kant)

The Age of Reason:Identifying Characteristics

Art & Literature Order and HarmonyAutonomy of Reason, Progress, PerfectibilityAssaults on Authority

Religion DeismHumankind The rejection of the doctrine of original sin. We should act with politeness, decency, and decorum.

Political theory governments derive from people in a social contractNature reformed and organized is best


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Baroque Art and ArchitectureC. 1600c. 1770Characteristics

Highly ornamentalCurved linesDramatic li htin and color

Chiaroscurodramatic contrasts of light and darkExaggerated gesturesTheatricality

Baroque Rubens

e or ra

Baroque Rembrandt

Night-watch

Baroque Vermeer

Milkmaid

Baroque Bernini

GianlorenzoBernini

The Ecstacyof St.Theresa

Theatricalityof Baroque

Baroque Caravaggio

Caravaggio

The Sacrificeof Issac

Action

ExtremeChiaroscuro

Tenebrism(DarkManner


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Baroque in Vienna:Theatricality Baroque in

Vienna:Theatricality

Paris OperaNeo-baroque

The Age of Reason: Order and Harmony

Davids Oath of the HoratiiThe Age of Reason in Literature: Order and Harmony

The Heroic Couplet Vice is a monster of so frightful mien,As to be hated, needs but to be seen;Yet seen too oft, familiar with her face,

We first endure, then pity, then embrace.Alexander Pope

Dictionary of the English Language, by Samuel Johnson(1755).brought order to spelling and definitions, thestandard for 150 years.

Samuel Richardson: Pamela (1740) First novel. The novelaims at moral instruction. Literature is often pedantic.


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The Age of Reason: PROGRESS

For the first time, we see an optimistic view that humans can use reason to create a new and better world than had existed before. In the field of science in particular, there was a clear break from the past traditions and a belief that the best was yet to come, that scientific progress was possible.

Diderots Encyclopedie (28 volumes)

More ideas and

information from

secular sources

A New Religious Perspective: Deism

Deism was a natural religion. Its adherents were convinced that Nature gave evidence that there must be a Creator God. However,

ey were s ep ca a could be proved that Christ was the Son of God or that our spirits would continue beyond the grave. Deists tried to humanize religion. God with a compass

creating the world.(William Blake)

I believe in one God, and no more; and I hope for happiness beyond this life. I believe in the equality of man;and I believe that religious duties consist in doing justice, loving mercy, and endeavoring to make our fellowcreatures happy. . . . I do not believe in the creed professedby the Jewish Chuch, by the Roman Church, . . .by the Protestant Church, nor by any church that I know of. My

. . . . disciples] did not believe the resurrection, and as they say, would not believe without having ocular and manual demonstration himself. So neither will I, and the reason is equally as good for me, and for every other person, as for Thomas. (Thomas Paine, The Age of Reason , 17945)

Deism Thomas Jefferson

The day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by

the Supreme Being as his father, in the womb of a virgin will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter.

DeismThomas JeffersonI have recently been examining all the known superstitions of the world, and do not find in our particular superstition [Christianity] one redeeming feature. They are all alike, founded

upon fables

and

mythologies.

Millions

of

innocent

men, women an c i ren, since t e intro uction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined and imprisoned. What has been the effect of this coercion? To make one half the world fools and the other half hypocrites; to support roguery and error all over the earth.


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DeismThomas JeffersonThe establishment of the innocent and genuine character of this benevolent moralist [Jesus], and the rescuing it from the imputation of imposture, which has resulted from artificial systems, * invented by ultra Christian sects, unauthorized by a single word ever uttered by him, is a most d desirable o ec e. g. e mmacu a e concep on o esus, his deification, the creation of the world by him, his miraculous powers, his resurrection and visible ascension, his corporeal presence in the Eucharist, the Trinity; original sin, atonement, regeneration, election, orders of Hierarchy, &c. (Jefferson, Thomas. Letter to William Short, 31 Oct. 1819)

Jefferson, the InfidelDuring Jeffersons campaign for the presidency, the Gazette of the United

States published the following: . . . the only question to be asked by every American, aying is an on is eart, is shall I continue in allegiance to GODAND A RELIGIOUS PRESIDENT [John Adams]; or impiously declare for JEFFERSONAND NO GOD!!!

DEISM JOHN ADAMS

The doctrine of the divinity of Jesus is made a cover for absurdity.The Government of the United States s no n any sense oun e upon e Christian religion.

DEISM JOHN ADAMS

The United States of America marks the first example of governments erected on the simple principles of nature. The architects of American government never had interviews with the gods or were in any degree under the inspiration of Heaven more than those at work upon ships or houses. [Government] is contrived merely by the use of reason and the senses. . . . [The government] was founded on the natural authority of the people alone, without a pretense of miracle or mystery.

Madison: Religion and Government

What influence, in fact, have ecclesiastical establishments had on society? In some instances they have been seen to erect a spiritual tyranny on the ruins of the civil authority; on many instances they have been seen upholding the thrones of

political tyranny; in no instance have they been the guardians of the liberties of the people. Rulers who wish to subvert the public liberty may have found an established* clergy convenient auxiliaries. A just government, instituted to secure and perpetuate it, needs them not. (*used in the same sense as the 1stamendment, i.e., official, government recognizedand perhaps supportedreligion)

DEISM Benjamin FranklinI was scarce fifteen, when, . . . I began to doubt of Revelation itself. Some books against Deism fell into my hand; . . . They wrought an effect on me quite contrary to what was intended by

them; for the arguments of the Deists, which were quoted to be refuted, appeared to me stronger than the refutations; in short, I soon became a thorough Deist. (Franklin, Autobiography , 65)


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United States Prized Religious Tolerance

"They all attributed the peacefuldominion of religion in their countrymainly to the separation of churchand state. I do not hesitate to affirm

a ur ng my s ay n mer canot meet a single individual, of theclergy or the laity, who was not of thesame opinion on this point"

. -Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America,1835

Deism VoltaireIs Jesus the Word? If He be the Word, did He emanate from God, is He coeternal and consubstantial with Him, or is He of a similar substance. . . .Is the Holy Ghost made? or begotten? or produced?. . .Assuredly, I understand nothing of this; no one has ever understood any of it, and that is why we have slaughtered one another. The Christians tricked, caviled, hated, and

, dogmas inaccessible to human intellect. . . .The most detestable example of fanaticism is that exhibited on the night of St. Bartholomew[1572], when the people of Paris rushed from house to house to stab, slaughter, throw out of the window and tear in pieces their fellow citizens who did not go to mass[Protestants]. (Voltaire, Treatise on Tolerance, 1763)

Human Worth: The Rejection of the Doctrine of Original Sin

Christianity had long held that from Adam, humans had inherited a fallen state of corruptibility and an inclination to do evil. Catholicism and earl Reformers both held this doctrine.During the Age of Reason, this doctrine was being challenged and rejected by many. The view of human possibility became more optimistic (and a little snobbish).

Medieval View of Gods Power on EarthWith the Catholic Church holding pervasive power, the church authorities had all religious and secular power. Dr Johnson describes Cardinal Bellarmines position: the Pope is invested with all the authority on heaven and earth. That all princes are his vassals, and that he may annul their laws at his pleasure. That he may depose kings if the good of the Church requires it. . . .That the Pope is God upon earth.

(Georgio de Santillana)

Renaissance view of the Divine Right of Kings

[Renaissance view] Because there are none on earth, after God, greater than sovereign princes, whom God establishes as His lieutenants to command the rest of mankind,

. . . we

[must]

respect

and

revere

their

majesty

n a ue o e ence, spea an n o em with all due honour. He who contemns his sovereign prince, contemns God whose image he is. . . . If the prince can only make law with the consent . . . of an inferior, whether it be a council of magnates or the people, it is not he who is sovereign (Bodin, 1576)

New View: Rational, Educated People hold the Power: Social Contract Theory

(New ideas) all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among ese are e, er y, an e pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the Governed . (Decl. of Ind., 1776)


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