Name:______Date:______Assignment#____
Study Guide for Age of Reason/Revolutionary Period Test
Directions: For each of the following sections you must make a flashcard to help you study on the test: A,B,C,D, E,F,G
- Common Beliefs of the Age of Reason:
1. Faith in natural goodness - a human is born without taint or sin; the concept oftabula rasaor 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 - echoes of Rene Descartes'cogito ergo sumor "I think, therefore, I am" (as the first certitude in resolving universal doubt)
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 Outdated social institutions cause unsociable behavior - religious, social, economic, and political institutions, which have not modernized, force individuals into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
- Deists believe that
1. One cannot access God through any organized religion, set of belief, ritual, sacrament or other practice.
2. God has not selected a chosen people (e.g. Jews or Christians) to be the recipients of any special revelation or gifts.
3. Deists deny the existence of the Trinity as conceived by Christians.
4. They may view Jesus as a philosopher, teacher and healer, but not as the Son of God.
5. They believe that miracles do not happen.
6. The "world operates by natural and self-sustaining laws of the creator."
7. A practical morality can be derived from reason without the need to appeal to religious revelation and church dogma.
8. Deists pray, but only to express their appreciation to God for his works. They generally do not ask for special privileges, or try to assess the will of God through prayer.
C. Important writers: Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Paine, Patrick Henry, and any other of the so-called “Founding Fathers.”
Spurred by the work of many seventeenth-century thinkers—scientists such as Galileo and Newton, philosophers like Voltaire and Rousseau, and political theorist John Locke—the writers and thinkers of the Enlightenment valued reason over faith.
D. Thomas Paine-
He used “plain -style” language in an attempt to engage people of all classes in the struggle for American independence and for a rejection of government based on hereditary monarchy
His bold and simple argument rallied a scattered citizenry to the cause of freedom and exerted considerable influence on the new nation’s emerging political philosophy
Paine wrote the first of the American Crisis letter pamphlets after witnessing the loss of New York and joining the retreat to Newark…a text that George Washington ordered read to all the troops.
Pamphlets helped to bolster the sagging spirits of the ill-fitted troops and firm the resolve of an occasionally diffident population
E. Benjamin Franklin-
“A life of leisure and a life of laziness are two things. There will be sleeping enough in the grave. “
Aphorism: A Penny Saved is a Penny earned
Franklin wrote the first section of The Autobiography in 1771 at the age of 65.
At the urging of friends, he wrote three more sections—the last shortly before his death.
Though never completed, his Autobiography, filled with his opinions and suggestions, provides not only a record of his achievements but also an understanding of his character.
F. Vocabulary: Draw a picture or use each word in a sentence on a separate card.
Absolved-free from guilt or blame
Dissolved-destroyed
Rectitude-correctness
Arduous-difficult
G. Quotes:--Explain each of these in your own words on a separate card.
1.) “Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom, must, like men, undergo the fatigues of supporting it.”
2.)“Men should not petition for rights but take them”
3.)“Reason obeys itself; and ignorance submits to whatever is dictated to it.”