The Age of Reason and Revolution

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The Age of Reason and Revolution

Many individuals that lived in the period of time known as the Age of

Reason, discovered many new inventions and advancements to improve the

quality of life. Some of these advantages brought fourth new ideas to

extraordinary people who forever changed the way we look at life.

Although many people found these discoveries to bring great revival to

mankind, others rejected these new improvements and felt as if they

were defying god. These years were full of discoveries, conflicts, and

new visions of the world. The age of reason brought on many changes to

religious, political, scientific, and literary aspects of the

eighteenth century.

The Age of Reason and Revolution was a time of change. This age, and

the changes in it, was mainly brought upon by the Renaissance, along

with some other technological inventions that made reasoning possible.

But mainly, the Renaissance provided the historical roots for the Age

of Reason. The Age of Reason had tremendous influence in arts and

architecture, intellectual position of people, science and technology,

and political power. In architecture, instead of just churches being

the buildings considered works of art, private homes and public

buildings began to be seen as art.

Again, these were great changes and enormous growth for some people,

but not for all.

One of our great humanitarians from the Age of Reason was Thomas

Paine.

“Thomas Paine preached the doctrines of natural rights, the equality

of men, and social contract”(American Literature). Thomas Paine was

born in 1737, and was an Anglo-American writer and political theorist,

who boldly spoke o...

... middle of paper ...

... end on monarchial rule, which gave citizens choices of how to live

their own lives, and how to pick politicians. This age of new growth

set the path for which we live today. Without the changes that

occurred, and that are still occurring society as a whole, would just

be floating bodies without souls.

Works Cited

Brainard, Rick. Character of Colonial America: the shape of things to

come.

McMichael, George, J.c. Levenson, Leo Marx, David E. Smith, Mae M.

Claxton, and Susan Bunn. Concise Anthology of American Literature.

5th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1998. 322-340.

Paine, Thomas. Common Sense-Great Books in Philosophy. New York: Wiley

Book Co., 1942.

Sampson, R.v. Progress in the Age of Reason: The Seventeenth Century

to the Present Day. Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP., 1956. 226.

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