2. John Locke
One of the great philosophers of the
late seventeenth and early
eighteenth century.
An Oxford scholar, medical
researcher and physician, political
operative, economist and ideologue
According to Locke, we can know
with certainty that God exists.
We can also know about morality
with the same precision we know
about mathematics, because we
are the creators of moral and
political ideas.
He gives us the theory of natural
law and natural rights which he
uses to distinguish between
legitimate and illegitimate civil
governments.
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3. Upper Classes
In the eighteenth-century, an
American upper class had
emerged and had begun to
mimic their counterparts in
England.
This new socio-political elite
was built largely on the
growing trans-Atlantic
commerce.
During this same period,
however, ordinary Americans
made increased demands for
In 1705, Governor Joseph “English liberties” in the face
Dudley personified the reason
many common Americans of aristocratic privilege and
challenged established power.
authority.
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4. Jonathan Edwards
Jonathan Edwards was the most
famous and influential of
America’s revivalist theologians.
Expressive of two ideas:
the ultimate power and majesty
of God
God’s amazing holiness.
Edwards synthesized traditional
Protestantism with Newton’s
physics, Locke’s psychology,
Shaftsbury's aesthetics, and
Malebranche’s moral philosophy.
He led the fervid religious
revivalist movement that was
dubbed “the Great Awakening.”
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5. The Great Awakening
Started among Presbyterians in
Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
It was a reaction against the
formality of the established
congregational churches.
It led to the founding of a number
of academies and colleges.
It was the first common experience
shared by large numbers of
Americans and fostered the
development of the American
identity.
The movement also led to a fissure
within American Protestantism
between traditionalists who
insisted on ritual and doctrine and
the new revivalists who stressed
an intensely passionate
commitment to religion.
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6. Benjamin Franklin
Franklin's "" was one of the first
serious studies of demography.
Franklin held to a belief that no
man in America needed to long
remain a laborer for others.
Despite the doubling of the
population in every twenty years
or so, America remained a land of
opportunity, where wages
remained high and even slaves
were expensive.
Franklin's essay uses
sophisticated use of social
science data to convince the
British ministry to alter its colonial
policies.
Franklin also pleads that America
be maintained as an entirely
Anglo-Saxon society.
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7. Scientific Inquiry
The Scientific Revolution led to a
fundamental shift in Western
thought and drastically altered
previous views of the universe.
A modern scientific world-view
emerged as a popular among
the educated in the Western
world.
Benjamin Franklin was deeply
interested in scientific inquiry.
He invented the lightning rod,
the glass harmonica, the
Franklin stove, and bifocal
glasses.
Franklin established the
American Philosophical Society
to foster scientific discovery and
the dissemination of ideas.
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8. Immanuel Kant
Immanuel Kant was a Prussian
scholar who left a lasting
impact on the Romantic and
Idealist philosophies of the
19th Century.
Kant asserted that human
beings have innate properties
within their minds in order to
make sense of the raw data
delivered by the senses.
Kant published his most
important work in 1781, “the
Critique of Pure Reason,” one
of the most important books in
the history of Western
philosophy.
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9. Adam Smith
Adam Smith was a Scottish
moral philosopher.
He was the leading pioneer in
the science of political
economics and the major
influence on the development
of a theory of capitalism.
Smith was passionate about
liberty, reason and free
speech.
An Inquiry into the Nature and
Causes of the Wealth of
Nations (1776) was
unquestionably Smith’s most
lasting contribution to western
thought and the
Enlightenment.
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10. The Wealth of Nations
Thoroughly examined the development
of European industry and commerce.
Adam Smith made a convincing attack
on the doctrine of mercantilism.
Smith argued that expanding trade and
opening new markets for a nation’s
surplus goods would actually produce
more wealth and economic success
than mercantilist practices.
Smith insisted that labor was most
important and that the division of labor
would greatly increase both efficiency
and production.
His “invisible hand” theory stated that
the basic market-mechanisms of supply
and demand regulate the economy and
that government interference was
detrimental to economic success.
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11. Thomas Paine
Thomas Paine was a
revolutionary, radical
intellectual, and deist.
Paine’s works drastically
changed the political and
social climate of the 18th
century.
During the Revolution, Paine
joined the Continental Army.
In response to English criticism
of the French Revolution,
Paine wrote “The Rights of
Man” (1791-92).
Paine was the most successful
pamphleteer of the
Enlightenment.
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12. Common Sense
Paine’s pamphlet “Common
Sense” was the most influential to
American politics.
It sold 150,000 copies in the first
year of its publication.
It demanded total separation from
Britain and establishment of a
strong federal union.
It was a powerful attack on the
idea of monarchy and hereditary
privilege.
“Common Sense” convinced many
colonists, including George
Washington and John Adams,
support the independence
movement and join the revolution.
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