Could a perfect new government or society—uncorrupted by European degeneracy—be created in the New World? Did plants, animals, and peoples improve or degenerate in the American climate? These were just a few of the questions that revolutionized intellectual life in this era. British Americans were at both the center and the edge of the Enlightenment. But ever-faster and more numerous ships regularly ferried books, objects, and letters across the Atlantic Ocean, so that Europeans and Americans communicated in increasingly dense intellectual networks over the course of the eighteenth century.
The middle stage extends from to just a few years after the start of the American Revolution in It is characterized by an exploding fascination with science, religious revivalism and experimental forms of government, especially in the United States. However, American Enlightenment thinkers were not always of a single mind with their European counterparts.
For instance, several American Enlightenment thinkers—particularly James Madison and John Adams, though not Benjamin Franklin—judged the French philosophes to be morally degenerate intellectuals of the era. Many European and American Enlightenment figures were critical of democracy.
John Adams and James Madison perpetuated the elitist and anti-democratic idea that to invest too much political power in the hands of uneducated and property-less people was to put society at constant risk of social and political upheaval. In the Two Treatises on Government and , Locke argued against the divine right of kings and in favor of government grounded on the consent of the governed; so long as people would have agreed to hand over some of their liberties enjoyed in a pre-political society or state of nature in exchange for the protection of basic rights to life, liberty and property.
However, if the state reneged on the social contract by failing to protect those natural rights, then the people had a right to revolt and form a new government. Perhaps more of a democrat than Locke, Rousseau insisted in The Social Contract that citizens have a right of self-government, choosing the rules by which they live and the judges who shall enforce those rules. European Enlightenment thinkers conceived tradition, custom and prejudice Vorurteil as barriers to gaining true knowledge of the universal laws of nature.
Deists appreciated God as a reasonable Deity. A reasonable God endowed humans with rationality in order that they might discover the moral instructions of the universe in the natural law. Deists were typically though not always Protestants, sharing a disdain for the religious dogmatism and blind obedience to tradition exemplified by the Catholic Church.
Rather than fight members of the Catholic faith with violence and intolerance, most deists resorted to the use of tamer weapons such as humor and mockery. Some struggled with the tensions between Calvinist orthodoxy and deist beliefs, while other subscribed to the populist version of deism advanced by Thomas Paine in The Age of Reason.
Despite the near absence of God in human life, American deists did not deny His existence, largely because the majority of the populace still remained strongly religious, traditionally pious and supportive of the good works for example monasteries, religious schools and community service that the clergy did.
Another idea central to American Enlightenment thinking is liberalism, that is, the notion that humans have natural rights and that government authority is not absolute, but based on the will and consent of the governed. Rather than a radical or revolutionary doctrine, liberalism was rooted in the commercial harmony and tolerant Protestantism embraced by merchants in Northern Europe, particularly Holland and England. Liberals favored the interests of the middle class over those of the high-born aristocracy, an outlook of tolerant pluralism that did not discriminate between consumers or citizens based on their race or creed, a legal system devoted to the protection of private property rights, and an ethos of strong individualism over the passive collectivism associated with feudal arrangements.
Liberals also preferred rational argumentation and free exchange of ideas to the uncritical of religious doctrine or governmental mandates. In this way, liberal thinking was anti-authoritarian. Although later liberalism became associated with grassroots democracy and a sharp separation of the public and private domains, early liberalism favored a parliamentarian form of government that protected liberty of expression and movement, the right to petition the government, separation of church and state and the confluence of public and private interests in philanthropic and entrepreneurial endeavors.
The U. Bill of Rights, the first ten amendments to the Constitution, guarantees a schedule of individual rights based on the liberal ideal. Republican values include civic patriotism, virtuous citizenship and property-based personality.
Developed during late antiquity and early renaissance, classic republicanism differed from early liberalism insofar as rights were not thought to be granted by God in a pre-social state of nature, but were the products of living in political society. On the classical republican view of liberty, citizens exercise freedom within the context of existing social relations, historical associations and traditional communities, not as autonomous individuals set apart from their social and political ties.
The Jeffersonian ideal of the yeoman farmer, which had its roots in the similar Roman ideal, represented the eighteenth-century American as both a hard-working agrarian and as a citizen-soldier devoted to the republic.
When elected to the highest office of the land, George Washington famously demurred when offered a royal title, preferring instead the more republican title of President.
Though scholarly debate persists over the relative importance of liberalism and republicanism during the American Revolution and Founding see Recent Work section , the view that republican ideas were a formative influence on American Enlightenment thinking has gained widespread acceptance. Though the Enlightenment is more often associated with liberalism and republicanism, an undeniable strain of conservatism emerged in the last stage of the Enlightenment, mainly as a reaction to the excesses of the French Revolution.
Though it is argued that Burkean conservatism was a reaction to the Enlightenment or anti-Enlightenment , conservatives were also operating within the framework of Enlightenment ideas. Some Enlightenment claims about human nature are turned back upon themselves and shown to break down when applied more generally to human culture.
For instance, Enlightenment faith in universal declarations of human rights do more harm than good when they contravene the conventions and traditions of specific nations, regions and localities. Benjamin Franklin: An American Life. New York: Simon and Schuster, Kidd, Thomas S. New Haven: Yale University Press, Morgan, Edmund S.
Benjamin Franklin. Richard, Carl J. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, Wood, Gordon S. The Americanization of Benjamin Franklin. New York: Penguin, Upcoming Events Explore our upcoming webinars, events and programs.
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Make a Donation. Learn More. About BRI The Bill of Rights Institute engages, educates, and empowers individuals with a passion for the freedom and opportunity that exist in a free society. Page: Resources Library Arrow icon. Unit: Chapter 2: Written by: Thomas Kidd, Baylor University By the end of this section, you will: Explain how and why the different goals and interests of European leaders and colonists affected how they viewed themselves and their relationship with Britain.
His founding of the Junto His conducting scientific experiments and sharing his findings His applying for patents His writing of his autobiography. It was founded on Puritan principles. It was the first university founded in the American colonies. This Day In History. History Vault. Recommended for you. Isaac Newton. John Locke The English philosopher and political theorist John Locke laid much of the groundwork for the Enlightenment and made central contributions to the development of liberalism.
Great Awakening The Great Awakening was a religious revival that impacted the English colonies in America during the s and s. Galileo Galilei Galileo Galilei is considered the father of modern science and made major contributions to the fields of physics, astronomy, cosmology, mathematics and philosophy. Eleanor of Aquitaine Eleanor of Aquitaine was one of the most powerful and influential figures of the Middle Ages.
Battle of Waterloo The Battle of Waterloo, which took place in Belgium on June 18, , marked the final defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte, who conquered much of Europe in the early 19th century. French Revolution The French Revolution was a watershed event in modern European history that began in and ended in the late s with the ascent of Napoleon Bonaparte.
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