THE AGE OF REASON
1765-1830s
Essential Questions
Why do we study historical documents?
What is self-evaluation and when is it helpful?
What constitutes an effective speech?
How has the revolutionary period and its literature
shaped our nation?
The Age of Reason: Tinkerers and
Experimenters
By the end of the 17th Century, new ideas began to
emerge and the unshakable faith of the Puritans
began to be challenged and questioned.
The Age of Reason, or the Enlightenment, began in
Europe with the philosophers and scientists of the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries that called
themselves “rationalists.”
Rationalism
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.
The rationalists saw God differently than the
Puritans. They believed that God’s special gift to
humanity was reason – the ability to think in an
ordered and logical manner.
This gift of reason allowed people to discover both
scientific and spiritual truth.
Rationalism and God
Like the Puritans, the rationalists discovered God
through the natural world, but did so in a different
way.
Rather than believing that God chose certain
individuals to reveal himself to, rationalists believed
that God made it possible for all people to
discover natural laws through reason.
Deism: Are People Basically Good?
Deists avoided supporting specific religious groups.
Deists believed that the universe was orderly and
good.
Stressed humanity’s goodness and the possibility of
perfection through the use of reason.
God’s vision included the happiness of all
individuals; therefore, doing good for others was
considered religious work.
Self-Made Americans
The masterpiece of the Revolutionary era is
Benjamin Franklin’s Autobiography. Franklin took the
Puritan impulse toward self-examination and
molded it into the classic American rags-to-riches
story – the triumph of the self-made person.
This story became the example many other
Americans chose to follow.
The Rationalistic Worldview
People arrive at truth by using reason rather than by relying
on the authority of the past, on religion, or on non-rational
mental processes like intuition.
God created the universe but does not interfere in 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.
Works Cited
Arpin, Gary Q. “Beginnings.” Elements of Literature:
Fifth Course. Eds. Kathleen Daniel, Richard Sime,
Thomas F. Hirsch, and Patricia Cambridge. Austin:
Holt, Reinhart and Winston, 2003. 2-18. Print.
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