English 3 Mr. Kummerow

Encounters and Foundations to 1800

Age of ReasonNotes

Age of Reason: Tinkerers and Experimenters

The Smallpox Plague

Unlikely Cure

A Practical Approach to Change

Deism: Are People Basically Good?

Self-made Americans

Question: How did rationalism differ from Puritanism, and what effect did rationalism have on the new American political system?

Encounters and Foundations to 1800

Age of Reason Notes

  • The Age of Reason: Tinkerers and Experimenters
  • began in Europe in the 1600s and 1700s
  • Rationalists believed that human beings could use their reason to find truth
  • Puritans saw God as active in human affairs; the rationalists saw God differently.
  • God’s special gift to people was reason
  • Reason enabled each person to direct his or her own life.
  • Scientific experimenting thrived in the American Colonies.
  • Americans had to make do with what they had, and they had to achieve results.
  • The Smallpox Plague
  • In April 1721, a ship from the West Indies docked in BostonHarbor.
  • It carried the disease of smallpox.
  • Spread rapidly and often killed.
  • The smallpox conflict shows that Americans could be contradictory
  • Mather, a devout Puritan, but also a practical scientist.
  • Willingness to experiment was necessary to the public welfare.
  • Deism: Are People Basically Good?
  • Rationalists saw God in the natural world.
  • Believed that all people at all times could discover God’s natural laws.
  • This outlook is called deism
  • Deists viewed people as basically good.
  • Use reason to perfect themselves and society.
  • The best way to worship God was to do good for others.
  • Rationalist ideas helped fuel the American struggle for Independence.
  • Helped to shape the Declaration of Independence.
  • Self-made Americans
  • The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin is a masterpiece of the American Age of Reason.
  • Franklin used a popular form of Puritan writing – writing about oneself.
  • Franklin’s work was not religious.
  • His story of a self-made American would become the model for some classic American literature and for many bestsellers today.

Benjamin Franklin

Notes

  • 1 of 17 children
  • Accomplishments
  • By 24, he was a prosperous merchant, owner of a successful shop, and the publisher of The Pennsylvania Gazette
  • Help founded the Academy of Philadelphia, the American Philosophical Society, and the first public library
  • Good negotiator
  • Used the skill to service the state and country
  • Began his autobiography when he was 65 and continued working on it for years. He never finished it and it was not published during his lifetime.
  • Poor Richards Almanack is biggest publishing success (25 years)
  • from Autobiography
  • Get to know the writer’s
  • Personality
  • Philosophical beliefs
  • Attitudes
  • Look beneath the surface of the text for Inferences
  • Definition: Clues for guessing the writer’s suggested but unstated beliefs
  • from Poor Richard’s Almanack
  • Aphorisms
  • Definition: A brief, cleverly worded statement that makes a wise observation about life
  • Purposes: Entertain, instruct, suggest ways to overcome obstacles, solve problems, achieve success; and inspire
  • Satire: Use humor to mock and criticize the way things are that can address any subject

Benjamin Franklin

Notes

  • Accomplishments
  • Good negotiator
  • from Autobiography
  • Get to know the writer’s…
  • Definition:
  • from Poor Richard’s Almanack
  • Aphorisms
  • Definition:
  • Purposes:
  • Satire: