The Age of Reasonand

The Revolutionary Period

A Change in Perception

• How do we go straight from William Bradford and the Puritans to revolutionaries like Ben Franklin and Thomas Paine? Those people aren’t anything like the Puritans.– While the Puritans were largely responsible

for founding and colonizing the New England area, the middle colonies held a rich diversity.

A Change in Perception

• This diversity allowed for range of vastly contrasting, and often conflicting, views on the world, life, and most important: politics and religion.– Many of the ideas and motivations came from

Europe. This began in the 17th & 18th centuries with philosophers and scientists: the rationalists.

– Rationalism is the belief that human beings can arrive at truth by using reason, rather than by relying on the authority of the past, on religious faith, or on intuition.

A Change in Perception

• While the Puritans believed that the workings of God were evident in every aspect of life and existence, the rationalists compared God more to a clockmaker, whose purpose was to create a perfect system. That system, once perfect and like a clock, is left on its own to run its course.

Deism*

• Unlike the Puritans, the rationalists didn’t believe that God would chose to reveal himself to only at particular times to particular people, but believed that all people at all times could figure out the laws and order of the universe through their God-given power of reason

• Deists come from many religious backgrounds, yet avoid supporting specific religious groups.

• They sought the basic principals that unite all religions

The Power of the Self

• Through the mindset of the rationalists and the situation at hand, strong men of character rose up to change the world as they knew it and, for the most part, were successful.

• During this period, the majority of the writing done was in the form of political or practical pamphlets. The majority of these are written in a form that we call polemic writing (persuasive argument).

The Power of the Self

Examples of polemic argument during this section will be seen in Thomas Paine’s “a Crisis No. 1”, “Common Sense”, and Thomas Jefferson’s “Declaration of Independence”.

• We will also witness the rise of the self-made man in the previous selections and Franklin’s “Autobiography”.

OverviewThe Rationalist Worldview

• People arrive at truth by using reason, rather than by relying on the authority of the past, on religious faith, or on nonrational mental processes like intuition.

• God created the universe but does not interfere with its workings.

• The world operates according to God’s rules, and through the use of reason, we can discover those rules.

• People are basically good and perfectible. • Since God wants people to be happy, they worship

God best by helping other people. • Human history is marked by progress toward a more

perfect existence.