Enlightenment / Great Awakening

Thomas Hobbes

-pre-enlightenment thinker
-wrote Leviathan to demonstrate top-down rule
-subjective good vs evil

Isaac Newton

-claimed humans were capable of making observations and influencing the world without a deity
-wrote Principia Mathematica (1687)
-sets up enlightenment ideas

Enlightenment

European movement from 1700-1800(ish) that emphasized rational reasoning in response to people like the Puritans; also known as the New Age of Reason

Immanuel Kant

-"the enlightenment is the awakening from our self-incurred immaturity"
-due to phenomenons the "das ding an sich" was not observable by humans

phenomenon

an idea made by Immanuel Kant that claims that everyone's perception is subjective, so only the object itself is the objective object

John Locke

-wrote "Essay Concerning Human Understanding" (1690)
-natural rights: life, liberty, property
-tabula rasa idea stems from Empiricism
-two-way social contract

Empiricism

a school of thought (area of philosophy) that states that our knowledge comes from experiences

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

-"man is born free but everywhere he is in chains"
-unnatural vs natural restrictions
-direct or pure democracy
-wrote Discourse on Inequality (1754) and Social Contract

unnatural restrictions

societal rules and conditions that affect the way people live

James Madison

argued for representative democracy to prevent factions
-wrote Federalist No. 10

Deism

theological rationalism that believes in a god on the basis of reason
-if creation, then creator
-duty to care for the earth and everything on it using god-given rationality

Thomas Paine

-wrote the essay "Of the Religion of Deism Compared with the Christian Religion" (1791); Common Sense; The American Crisis; The Age of Reason
-strong rationalist

Adam Smith

vouched for capitalism and the invisible hand of markets

invisible hand

human pursuit of self-interest increases production and promotes general well-being

Benjamin Franklin

"self-made man" who focused on moral perfectionism through logical attempts
-wrote The Autobiography and Poor Richard's Almanack

Thomas Jefferson

drew on Enlightenment ideas from Locke and Rousseau to write the Declaration of Independence

Great Awakening

American movement mid-1700 emphasizing faith through emotional teaching; in response to Enlightenment decreasing Church numbers; also known as the New Age of Faith

Great Awakening geological movement

started in the North with itinerant preachers, then moved through the colonies south, took root and never left

William Tennent & family

concerned about the great turning away from faith, they create a log college (Princeton) to educate their ministers for the Presbyterian Church
-beginning of Great Awakening with tent revivals

Jonathan Edwards

gave "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" speech in which he used imagery to scare people away from rationality and into Christianity
-focused on wrathful aspects of god

Johnathan Whitefield

a famous itinerant preacher who gave emotional sermons across the colonies, focusing on the positive aspects of god