Ben Franklin’s Autobiography

1. Ben Franklin’s Autobiography • Journal: Please comment on how the Autobiography demonstrates the various characteristics of The Age of Reason/Rationalism

2. The Age of Reason Moving from Puritanism to Rationalism

3. A transition from The Age of Faith to The Age of Reason • Write your name at the top of the Venn diagram. • Take out the Age of Reason packet • List two specific concrete characteristics under the Age of Faith and two under the Age of Reason. • List one concrete, specific characteristic in the center.

4. Form groups according to your assigned number. • Share your responses. • Each person should determine at least 5 characteristics on each side of the diagram and TWO characteristics in the center. • All diagrams in the group do not need to be identical. Share information and use what you think is legitimate and illustrative of that Age.

5. What brought about the shift in thought from The Age of Faith to the Age of Reason? • Does this mean that intuition or faith disappears? Example?

6. intuition versus logic • Explain using a practical example • 13, 15

7. rational • –adjective 1.agreeable to reason; reasonable; sensible: • 2.having or exercising reason, sound judgment, or good sense logical • the system or principles of reasoning applicable to any branch of knowledge or study.

8. reason • Sound judgment; good sense • Acquiring intellectual knowledge by direct understanding of principles or by argument intuition • direct perception of truth, fact, etc., independent of any reasoning process; immediate apprehension

9. What problems arose that instigated the move to logic and reason? • Scientific Method • Scientific Discoveries • Basic need to thrive and grow

10. Consider the belief system in the Age of Faith and what it accomplished. • The good…. • The not so good…

11. Why was it possible for spectral (supernatural, ghostly) evidence to be believed as “rock solid” during the Salem Witch Trials?

12. Think about a society that continued using faith/Bible as a basis for evidence, behavior, thought.

13. What might become of such a society (in addition to religious persecution such as the trials)?

14. Puritanism • “God [is] actively and mysteriously • involved in the workings of the universe.”

15. A critical point in history Something must change

16. Diseasesmallpox

17. Low productivity and hard work

18. Low Profits

19. Progress and quality of life are stagnant

20. What is the solution?

21. ??????????????????? • Your group has an opportunity to assist the Puritans after their theocracy has crumbled post Salem Witch Trials. • Construct a plan. • Generate three concrete steps that the Puritans must take in order to progress.

22. Spokesperson for each group will read the three recommendations. • You have 5 minutes

23. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0B28_gwj0M 33

25. Solution… • Experiment • Discover • Advance • Man must become rational—look to science and not to Divine Providence. • Man must use his God-given gift of reason to… • Experiment and Discover • Cure disease • Invent new “technology”

26. Americans had to become more reasonable or rational people • A matter of survival

27. New ideas had been arising in Europe and challenging the faith of the Puritans.

28. Aristotle often called the father of modern science…recognized The European Approach Scientific Method • a method of research in which • a problem is identified • relevant data are gathered • a hypothesis is formulated from these data • and the hypothesis is empirically tested.

29. The Age of Reason began with philosophers and scientists of the 17th and 18th centuries who called themselves Rationalists.

31. As opposed to the Puritans who said… Puritanism “God [is] actively and mysteriously involved in the workings of the universe.”

32. Descartes Opening sentence of his Discourse on Method: “I think therefore I am.” Francis Bacon: Philosophicaladvocate and practitioner of the scientific method

33. Galileo: often credited with the birth of modern science: supporter of heliocentricism…the idea that the sun is the center of the universe…this angered the Catholic church which claimed that the earth (as indicated in the Bible, was the center) A clash between faith (religion) and science.

34. Cotton Mather: Puritan minister a “practical scientist” First inoculations in America for small pox Learned from a Turkish scientist

35. John Locke • Life, liberty, health, and property…these are our natural rights, as found in the state of nature. • We are born with faculties that allow us to learn and use ideas • “Tabula Rasa” blank slate…man learns from experience…empiricism…guided by experimentation

36. Sir Isaac Newton: universal gravitation and the laws of motion…God is like a clockmaker…created the universe…left it to run on its own.God’s special gift to humanity is reason— “the ability to think in and ordered, logical manner.”

37. Rationalism and Revolution “The American struggle for independence was justified by rationalist principles.” “The Declaration of Independence bases its arguments on rationalist assumptions about relations between people, God, and natural law.” “When, in the course of human events… the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them…We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

38. Literature in the Age of Reason • Pamphlets: rooted in reality—political, social, scientific topics • Broadsides: poetic equivalent to pamphlets

39. Rationalists and God • “Discovered God though the medium of the natural world” • Thought it unlikely that God would choose to reveal himself only at particular times to particular people • Believed that God made it possible for all people at all times to discover natural laws through their God-given power of reason. • The belief that human beings can arrive at truth by using reason, rather than by relying on the authority of the past, on religious faith, or on intuition.

40. Deism - Are people basically good? • Believed “that the universe was orderly and good” • Believed “in the perfectibility of every individual through the use of reason” • Believed that “God’s objective was the happiness of his creatures.” • Believed “the best form of worship was to do good for others”

41. Deists did not believe in anthropomorphic figures Anthropomorphic • ascribing human form or attributes to a being or thing not human, esp. to a deity. • resembling or made to resemble a human form: an anthropomorphic carving.

42. Giving human qualities to a deity is not a practice of Deists

43. Voice of Reason?

46. Pantheism Pantheism (Greek: (pan) = all and (theos) = God, literally "God is all" -ism) is the view that everything is part of an all-encompassing immanentGod and that the Universe (Nature) and God are equivalent. Pantheists do not believe in a personal god; rather, they refer to nature and the universe as God.

47. atheism • Denial of the existence of any god

48. agnostic • A person who claims neither faith nor disbelief in god.

49. Read the first paragraph on page 264 Locate several examples of rational thought as opposed to Puritan thinking. Juxtapose the two ideas by offering specific, concrete examples.

50. First Coffee House • “Penny Universities” • 1650 Oxford, England • Informal intellectual discussions