Age of Reason

World HistoryChapter 15

Mrs. Stephanie Holland

The Age of Reason is a period during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries when many individuals refused to acknowledge the authority of the Scripture and instead exalted their own reason to a place of extreme authority.

• The belief that sees reason as the only sure source of knowledge and progress is rationalism.

•Philosophes – challenged the values of society, sought to conform society to their ideas, and encouraged religious tolerance.

• The philosophies were primarily spread through Encyclopedie. (Multi-volume books with articles on most any subject.) They were opposed by the Roman Catholic Church and the French government because they felt it undermined their authority.

• The Eighteenth century intellectual movement is known as Enlightenment. A strong emphasis was put on the power of human reason.

•Modern concepts of chemistry came from the medieval practices of mixing elixirs and potions.

Scientific Method• 1. Recognizing the inadequacy of

existing knowledge to explain a given question.

• 2. Gathering observations in an attempt to find possible answers.

• 3. Seeking to find a pattern in the observations upon which to base conclusions or theories.

•4. Choosing the most appropriate conclusion to explain the observations.

•5. Verifying the derived conclusion by further observations and experimentation.

Important People

•Bacon – Novum Organum . Questioned existing knowledge-Advocated careful observation and experimentation-Advocated forming tentative conclusions, then gathering information to verify results. (Inductive Reasoning)

•Copernicus – Questioned the theory that the universe is “earth-centered”.•Used telescope and astrolabe to study

the stars and planets. Concluded that the universe is sun centered – Heliocentric Theory.• The Roman Catholic Church supported

the geocentric theory and branded those who accepted the heliocentric theory as heretics.

•Descartes – Relied on reason and methods of mathematics. Start simple and through logic move to another more complex truth. “I doubt, therefore I think; I think, therefore I am.” (Deductive reasoning)

•Galileo – Best-known astronomer. Improved the telescope. Suggested the use of the pendulum to measure time. •Harvey – Father of Experimental

Biology-carefully studied the heart and blood circulation. Concluded that the heart alone pumps blood.

• Jenner – Developed the smallpox vaccine.• Lavoisier – Father of Modern

Chemistry.• Leeuwenhoek – Improved the

microscope and discovered the existence of microbes and bacteria.

•Mercator – devised the flat map.

•Paracelsus – studied disease and suggested that chemicals could be used to treat it.

• Isaac Newton – Invention of the reflecting telescope, laws of gravity and wrote Principia

•Priestley – Discovered the chemical substances of ammonia, oxygen and carbon dioxide.

•Boyle – found that increasing pressure on a gas reduces its volume and decreasing the pressure expanded its volume.

Literature of the Age of Reason was characterized by an imitation of classical works of Greece and Rome.

• The Arts:

•Defoe – Robinson Crusoe

•Gibbon – Decline and fall of the Roman Empire

• Pope – “To err is human, to forgive is divine.”

•Moliere – French comedies

• Swift – Gulliver’s Travels

• Rousseau – The Social Contract. Maintained that government should be built upon and carry out the “general will” of the people. (majority rule)

Philosophies of the Enlightenment

•Montesquieu – defended natural rights and the idea that men could change their government. Believed that the liberty of the English was due to a separation of the three powers – legislative, executive and judicial. • Impacted the framers of the United

States Constitution.

•Voltaire – Leading figure of Enlightenment. Outspoken critic of abuses in society such as religious and political intolerance. Hated organized religion. Advocated religion ruled by reason. Championed freedom of the press.

•Diderot – edited Encyclopedie and wrote several hundred articles for them.•Rousseau – Favored emotion and

sentiment above reason. Had many ideas about the education of our children. Father of Romanticism. Government should carry out the “general will” of the people.

•Rembrandt – A Dutch painter known for his chiaroscuro effect (contrasting light and dark)

• El Greco – known for creating figures with elongated bodies and limbs.

•Monteverdi – Leading composer of baroque music, most famous for operas.

• Isaac Watts and Charles Wesley were hymn writers.

•Polyphony – term applied to music with several intertwined melody lines.

•Rococo style - delicate and feminine

•Baroque – Dramatic, turbulent, sensual

•Neoclassical – The orderly, formal and balanced approach of Enlightenment.

Religion

•Deists – saw God as the Creator who no longer intervened in human affairs.•Deism was NOT associated with the

spiritual awakening of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.• Viewed the universe as a machine• Built on human wisdom – not the Bible

• Pietism – word originated as a derogatory term for those who studied the Bible.• Spencer – outlined failures of the church

and called for spiritual renewal.• Francke – trained Pietist pastors and

missionaries. Established an orphanage, schools and a Bible printing organization. His efforts established mission work in India and America. • Zinzendorf – Became leader of the

Moravians

• Empiricism - philosophy that “all knowledge comes through experience.”

• Pantheism – philosophy that everything is a part of one great substance called “God.”

• The Great Awakening – eighteenth-century American revival.

•Wesley’s work inspired spiritual revival and broke the apathetic attitude among profession Christians. Revivals helped improve the moral condition and restrain social upheaval. Stimulated interest in Christian education and led to the establishment of the first Sunday Schools. Encouraged the production of good Christian literature and music.