The document discusses several philosophical and literary movements that occurred in Europe and America between the 16th-19th centuries. Empiricism held that all knowledge comes from experience and the senses. Rationalism believed that reason is the source of knowledge. The Age of Enlightenment was a period when rationalism was strongest and led to changes in assumptions about doctrines and institutions. Transcendentalism knew knowledge comes from intuitive sources within us rather than experience alone.

1. Philosophical and Literary Movements European and American changes in perspective

2. Empiricism According to the ideas of empiricism, experience is the only source of our knowledge. None of us can truly know anything except through our own senses. This was the idea of the tabula rasa, that each of us is born as a blank slate waiting to be affected by the experiences we perceive through our own senses. Empiricism denies any innate knowledge, any knowledge unrelated to experience.

3. John Locke – 1632–1704Father of Empiricism

4. Rationalism – 1650-1800 Reason is the source of all knowledge. NOT Acceptance of authority Empiricism Spiritual revelation The Founding Fathers of the U.S. were rationalists. The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were planned, logical documents. Washington, D.C. was a rationally planned city.

5. Rationalists at Work

6. The Age of Enlightenment The era when Rationalism was strongest. The time when doctrines (divine right of kings) and institutions (monarchy, the church) were viewed from the point of view of Rationalism. Led to a change in assumptions about those doctrines and institutions.

7. Utilitarianism The right act or policy was that which would cause "the greatest good for the greatest number of people", also known as "the greatest happiness principle", or the principle of utility. He wrote in The Principles of Morals and Legislation: “ Nature has placed mankind under the governance of two sovereign masters, pain and pleasure. It is for them alone to point out what we ought to do, as well as to determine what we shall do."

8. Jeremy Bentham – 1748-1832 advocate of Utilitarianism

9. The Romantic Movement – late 18th C. to late 19th C. Stressed strong emotions and imagination Freedom from artistic correctness Rebellion against social conventions (rules)

10. Lord Byron tossing aside social conventions

11. Transcendentalism Began with Emerson’s essay “Nature” in 1836 Knowledge is derived from intuitive sources, NOT from experience. Knowledge is from somewhere within us that is beyond personal experience. Stressed the human connection with the natural world Died out as a movement in the late 19th C., but is it something we still live with?

12. Add to your Timeline: 1600 – William Shakespeare 1650 – Anne Bradstreet’s poetry published 1680 - Edward Taylor poetry 1692 – Salem witch trials 1776 – Declaration of Independence 1789 – French Revolution