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The Age of ReasonEurope After the Renaissance

catalog #2526

Teacher’s Guide

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THE AGE OF REASON1642-1800

Viewing Time: 22 Minutes

PROGRAM SUMMARY

This program, filmed both in Europe and America, useshistorical locations, renactments, and artwork to provide8th through 12th grade students with a glimpse of someof the most important cultural and intellectual changesthat occurred during the Age of Reason.

The program opens with a review of the Rennaisancetrends that ultimately gave rise to the Age of Reason.Students learn about the life of Isaac Newton, who isconsidered to be the major figure behind this era.

Students then discover two very important innovationsthat resulted in new ways of organizing a growing bodyof knowledge: Namely, the development of encyclopediasand the development of a system for classifying livingthings into distinct groups.

Next, students discover that the pursuit of sciencebecame a popular pastime during the Age of Reason andthat both Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jeffersonwere avid amateur scientists. A connection is madebetween the 18th century mania for science and theinvention of important new machines that led to theIndustrial Revolution.

To develop a sense of appreciation for “The Quest forBeauty” that was of considerable cultural importanceduring this era, students tour the grand country estateof the Duke of Devonshire and, as a result, learn howseriously this quest was taken in the mid-18th century.

Students then learn how many of the grandest Europeanhomes were built, in part, from money their ownersderived from investments in the colonies. Finally,students discover how the American colonists were

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greatly inspired by certain prevalent ideals of the Ageof Reason when they wrote the Declaration ofIndependence.

STUDENT OBJECTIVES

After viewing this video and participating in the lessonactivities, students should be able to:

• Explain the historical meaning of the term "Age ofReason."

• Describe how the work of Sir Isaac Newton led to aflowering of the the Age of Reason.

• Summarize the most important historical events thattook place in England during Newton’s childhood.

• Explain the historical importance of the work of DenisDiderot and Carl Linnaeus.

• Evaluate the role of amateur scientists in the creationof an Industrial Revolution.

• Explain the ways that colonies created wealth fortheir mother countries and analyze why a colonistmight feel resentment toward the mother country.

• Analyze the connection between the scientificrevolution of the 17th and 18th centuries and theAmerican Revolution of 1776.

TEACHER PREPARATION

Before presenting this program to your students, wesuggest that you preview the video and review this guide,along with the blackline masters that accompany it, inorder to familiarize yourself with their contents. You maydecide to duplicate some or all of the blackline mastersbefore the presentation of this program.

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As you review the instructional program outlined in thisguide and the accompanying blackline masters you maydecide to make certain additions, deletions, orsubstitutions to meet the specific needs of your class.We encourage you to do so, for only by tailoring thisprogram to your students will they obtain the maximuminstructional benefits afforded by these materials.

INTRODUCING THE PROGRAM

Introduce this program by stating that much of the waywe think about things in the late 20th century has itsroots firmly embedded in the great work of Isaac Newton.Before Newton’s time there was no method to scienceand science and Christianity often came into conflict(Galileo is a good example). Newton gave us the rational,mechanistic view of the universe that most people oftoday still unconsciously embrace. As a result ofNewton’s development of the scientific method, scienceflourished and has, for the most part, assumed the roleof “giver of truth”--a role that belonged almost entirelyto religion up until the Age of Reason.

Newton’s great scientific insights were embraced notonly by other scientists, but by musicians, artists,philosophers, politicians, and ordinary people as well.Toward the second half of the end of the 18th century,the Age of Reason became known as “TheEnlightenment,” for it was believed that civilization hadreached a point where reason had finally triumphed oversuperstition. This belief brought a growing sense of thelimitlessness of human possibility. And this new sensebrought with it demands for greater freedom andequality--demands clearly expressed in the AmericanDeclaration of Independence.

Introduce the concept of Deism as it was embraced byBenjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and ThomasPaine, i.e. a rejection of most conventional forms ofreligion, accepting reason as the only guide to truth;

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the view of God as the master clockmaker who buildsthe clock, sets it in motion, and then refuses to intervenein its actions. This Deist view of the universe has itsroots in the scientific work of Isaac Newton.

Present the Video. Viewing time: 22 minutes.

FOLLOW UP ACTIVITIES

Discussion: After the video presentation, you can leada discussion based on the following. The script of thevideo is provided on page 9 of this guide for referencefor many of the suggested discussion questions. Otherquestions are designed to inspire a great deal of thoughtand perhaps debate. You may even choose to use someof the questions for homework assignments or to chooseteams in class for debate.

1. Discuss first the historical meaning of the term "Ageof Reason" and make sure students fully understand itssignificance in history.

2. Discuss how the work of Sir Isaac Newton led to aflowering of the Age of Reason.

3. What importance did the work of Denis Diderot andCarl Linnaeus have during this period in history?

4. What role did amateur scientists have in the creationof an Industrial Revolution?

5. In the modern industrial world, most people tend tolook toward science to solve problems; for example,controlling disease, increasing food production,improving transportation, communication, and factoryoutput. To what degree can science be relied upon-- andnot relied upon--to solve the social and moral problemsof our modern world?

6. Using the Timeline provided on Blackline Master 3,review some of the important historical events that tookplace during the Age of Reason.

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7. What is the value of religion in our moderncivilization as compared to the value of science?

8. Why do science and religion often seem to be at oddswith one another--for example, evolution versuscreationism?

9. During the Age of Reason, many political leaders werealso amateur scientists, poets and musicians. Today mostAmerican politicians are lawyers. Discuss theimplications of this.

10. Discuss ways that colonies created wealth for theirmother countries. Why might a colonist have feltresentment toward the mother country?

11.What was the connection between the scientificrevolution of the 17th and 18th centuries and theAmerican Revolution of 1776?

Research Topics: The following are suggestions fororal and/or written reports. They can be used asindividual or group assignments.

1. The Life of Isaac Newton2. Deism3. The Work of Voltaire and Rousseau4. Painting and Sculpture During the Age of Reason.5. Samuel Pepys6. Neoclassicism7. Samuel Johnson8. 18th Century Science9. Alexander Pope10. Thomas Jefferson11. Benjamin Franklin12. The European Colonial Empires During the 17thand 18th Centuries.13. The Hudson's Bay Company, Africa Company, EastIndia Company.

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Extra Credit Report: Assign individuals or groups ofstudents to read the Declaration of Independence, usingan encyclopedia or other source in your library, and towrite how they feel the American colonists were inspiredby certain prevalent ideals of the Age of Reason whenthey wrote the Declaration of Independence.

BLACKLINE MASTERS/ANSWER KEY

• Blackline Masters 1and 2, LIST OF TERMS ANDIMPORTANT PEOPLE, will help students becomefamiliar with some of the terms and the peopleimportant to this time in history.

• Blackline Master 3, AGE OF REASON TIMELINE,shows the years that correspond to specific events inthe period covering the Age of Reason. This blacklinemaster is to be used for reference and discussion.

• Blackline Master 4, CROSSWORD PUZZLE, will teststudent knowledge of the words introduced in theprogram.

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• Blackline Master 5 is the QUIZ for this videopresentation. Below is the answer key for the quiz.

1. calculus, method2. classifying3. encyclopedias4. civil war5. the Black Plague6. Puritans7. machines8. Hudson's Bay Company9. Thomas Jefferson10. Ben Franklin

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Script of Video NarrationTHE AGE OF REASON

1642-1800

The AGE OF REASON--the period of European historythat dawned in the mid 1600s, developed largely as aresult of several important scientific advances that hadtaken place late in the Rennaisance--the historical erathat came before it.

Among other things, the Renaissance had given rise totwo new scientific instruments--the microscope and thetelescope.

And, as these devices came into widespread use duringthe 1600s, many educated people began to see theirworld in a new light, and as a result, they began toquestion the old explanations about how the universefunctioned. This was due in part to the fact that theirability to see had been remarkably expanded--outward,by the telescope, into the dark reaches of space; andinward, by the miscroscope, into the fantastic miniatureworld contained in a drop of pond water.

Each new scientific discovery, whether it was inchemistry, physics, astronomy, or biology, added to agrowing conviction that the unique human ability tosolve problems in a logical way held the key that would,in time, unlock all the secrets of the universe.

As faith in the power of reason and science grew, certainindividuals began to rebel against the dogmatic beliefsand authoritarian political systems they believed wereobstructing the free flow of human thought andexpression.

In the year 1776, a desire to realize the noblest ideals ofthe Age of Reason--those of freedom, of equality, and ofthe pursuit of happiness--led to the revolution of thirteenAmerican colonies against the English throne. And, as

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a result, the world's first modern republic was born.Now let us take a closer look at this fascinating periodof history by finding out how it developed and learningabout the great contributions that certain people wholived during the Age of Reason made to our civilization.

The Renaissance: The Historical Foundations ofthe Age of ReasonThe Age of Reason grew out of the cultural Renaissancewhich began in Italy around 1350 and that slowly spreadnorthward across Europe.

The Renaissance had been an era of rebirth andrediscovery; for during this time artists, scholars, andeven politicians had tried to recreate the same level ofcultural greatness that had once existed in the ancientcivilizations of Greece and Rome. And, although theRenaissance was a time of great religious devotion whenmany fine churches were built, the people of the erawere not involved in religion in quite the same way astheir medieval predecessors had been, for growingnumbers of people found themselves caught up in a newfascination with the physical world.

As a result of this new fascination, ships sailed out fromRenaissance ports on voyages of world exploration.Cities grew, trade increased and created new wealth thatoccasionally matched the wealth of the land-owningaristocracy.

The invention of the printing press resulted ininexpensive books that allowed new ideas to rapidlyspread.

Christianity underwent a movement of reform, andeventually, near the end of the Renaissance, thefoundations of modern science were laid down as a resultof the research of men like Nicholas Copernicus andGalileo Gallilei.

These Renaissance trends, namely the growth of science,of cities, of trade, and of political and religious freedom,

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as well as an intense fascination with ancientcivilizations, were the raw materials from which the Ageof Reason was shaped.

Isaac Newton and the Scientific RevolutionA logical date for the start of the Age of Reason is 1642,the year of the birth of Sir Isaac Newton, the single-most important figure of this new historical era, andthe same year that the great Renaissance scientist,Galileo, died.

However, some historians prefer to say that the Age ofReason actually began in the year 1686--the year thatIsaac Newton published what many consider to be thegreatest scientific book ever written: the "PhilosiphiaeNaturalis Principia Mathematica"--the mathematicalprinciples of natural philosophy--a book that was toradically change both scientific thought and method forcenturies to come.

In order to get a feeling for this era, let us discover whatwas happening in England during Newton's childhood.

Isaac Newton was born in this house near the Englishvillage of Grantham in the year 1642. At the time ofNewton's birth, 35 years had gone by since the foundingof the colony of Virginia, and 22 years had passed sincethe pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock.

The year of Newton's birth was the year that the EnglishCivil War began that saw the parliament locked in adeadly battle with the crown, and that turned into aneconomic class struggle led by wealthy merchants andpuritans against the monarchy.

By the time Isaac Newton reached the age of seven, theEnglish Civil War had ended with the execution of KingCharles I, and for most of Newton's youth, England wasruled by a puritan named Oliver Cromwell, whogoverned under the title of "Lord Protector."

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The monarchy was finally restored in the year 1660,just one year before Isaac Newton entered TrinityCollege, here at the University of Cambridge.

Immediately after finishing his university studies,Newton decided to return to his rural home to escapefrom a re-emergence of the Black Plague that wasstarting to spread outward from London to other Englishtowns.

By the year 1665, this most dreaded of diseases hadtaken tens of thousands of lives in England alone. But,in spite of this fact, Isaac Newton experienced a burstof scientific insight never matched before or since inhuman history.

During a brief 18-month period, he worked out the basicsof a new branch of mathematics called calculus.

He made the crucial discovery that all the colors of therainbow are invisibly present in ordinary white lightand wrote out the mathematical explanations for thiseffect.

He was able to understand and mathematicallyformulate the principles of gravity while watching anapple fall from a tree here in his garden.

And, at the same time, he described the physical lawsthat govern the motion of objects, calculated the massesof the sun and planets, and predicted the paths ofcomets--and all of these discoveries were also writtendown in precise mathematical language.

But perhaps Newton's greatest achievement was theapproach he developed for solving problems that we nowcall the scientific method.

Before Newton's time, science consisted largely of amixture of observation combined with religiousmysticism. And this approach rarely yielded predictable

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results--in fact, the lack of a consistent, logical methodto science accounts for its slow rate of progress up tothis time.

However, in contrast to the old ways, Newton's scientificmethod was based on three essential points: observation,generalization, and experimentation. By using thismethod, the facts were allowed to speak for themselvesin a pure, simple, and, above all, rational way.

And so it was that Isaac Newton completed a scientificrevolution begun in the late Renaissance by NicholasCopernicus and, as a result, gave birth to a new erathat we now call the Age of Reason.

The Organization of Knowledge: EncyclopediasAs scientists began to use Newton's method and to fullygrasp his other scientific insights, the flood of newknowledge they generated was so enormous that a fewpeople dedicated most of their lives simply to collectingand organizing information.

To this end, the Frenchman, Denis Diderot, began topublish the first encylopedias in the year 1751. Thesebooks were an instant success, for by using both wordsand illustrations, information gleaned from nearly everybranch of human knowledge was made easily accessibleto the common person. And the political views expressedin these early encyclopedias were to become a major forcebehind the Revolution that would begin here in thestreets of Paris at the end of the 18th century.

The Orgnaization of Knowledge: BiologicalClassificationA few decades before the French encyclopedists beganpublishing the information they had collected, a manfrom Sweden named Carolus Linnaeus had undertakena task of equal difficulty.

Linnaeus sought to develop a method whereby thebewildering array of living things could be separated

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into distinct groups; in other words, could be classifiedin a logical and systematic way.

It was Linnaeus' hope that if such a system of biologicalclassification could be developed, a much deeperunderstanding of the relationships between livingthings, and even of the nature of life itself, might beachieved.

To accomplish this goal, he developed a system wherebyliving creatures were grouped according to theirsimilarities and differences. Going from the creature'smost generalized characteristics--those that defined itskingdom whether it was an animal or a plant--downthrough several intermediate categories, to its mostspecific characteristics: those that defined its single,unique species.

Besides actually developing this system for biologicalclassification, Linnaeus also undertood anotherenormous task--that of actually assigning scientificgenus and species names to over 12,000 different typesof living things.

The task begun by Linnaeus in the early 1700s stillcontinues, and today over one million, four hundredthousand different species of living things have beennamed and classified.

Popular ScienceBy the time Linnaeus published his famous book onbiological classification, the fascination with science hadfiltered down to a popular level and people from all walksof life, including several famous political leaders, hadstarted to carry out amateur experiments and to inventall sorts of strange new machines.

Benjamin Franklin's experiments with electricity arequite well known.

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And, as can be seen by looking at the array of scientificinstruments here in Thomas Jefferson's bedroom, it isclear that he, too, was a devoted amateur scientist. Andhe would no doubt have owned one of these popular 18thcentury scientific toys, called an orrery, that mimickedthe movement of heavenly bodies with clocklikeprecision.

But Jefferson's interest in science had a practical sideas well, for he sought to exploit scientifically-acquiredinformation as a means of establishing a new farwesternfrontier for America. For this reason, in 1804, heinstructed the Lewis and Clark expedition to keep adetailed record on all of the plants, animals, andminerals they encountered on their journey.

New Machines: The Birth of an IndustrialRevolutionWith the amount of popular interest in science thatexisted throughout the Age of Reason, it is not at allsurprising that some very useful new machines wereinvented--machines that very soon would dramaticallychange the way that people worked and lived.

Steam engines similar to this one were in use as earlyas 1727, and by the end of the 18th century they wereoccasionally being used as sources of power for certainnew machines used in cloth making, such as theSpinning Jenny that spun raw fibers into thread andthe the power loom that wove the threads into finishedcloth.

Machines like these were to become the new work horsesof a growing movement towards industrialization--wheremachines did the work that had previously always beendone by hand.

A Quest for BeautyA premonition that industrialization would soon causehandmade things to disappear may be the force thatdrove many people of the Age of Reason on a truly

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remarkable quest for beauty that come to be epitomizedin the fine English country houses of the era.

The enormous mansion seen here, called Chatsworth,is the ancentral home of the Dukes of Devonshire, thefirst-born sons of the powerful Cavendish family, andits history is very interesting.

The original house built on this land was constructedduring the Renaissance, in the mid 1500s, according tothe plans of an earl's wife named Bess of Hardwick, sothat it would resemble her other house, Hardwick Hall,seen here.

Then, 134 years later, Bess's grandson decided toredesign his Renaissance house in order to reflect a moremodern, more enlightened point of view.

Accordingly, Chatsworth House was rebuilt to look as itdoes today, that is along the lines of an ancient Romantemple ornamented with statues and pillars--anarchitectural trend known as Neoclassicism.

Under its new one and one-third acre roof were contained175 rooms, most of them ornately decorated, that wereconnected by over three-quarters of a mile ofpassageways and 17 staircases.

By looking at this drawing done in 1699, we can seethat at that time Chatsworth was surrounded by overone thousand acres of geometrically planted gardens,which no doubt reflected the duke's fascination with arational and orderly mind.

However, just 57 years later, his grandson, the fourthduke, decided that these formal gardens were too harshand unnatural, so he ordered that most of them shouldbe removed. In their place, trees were planted inprecisely chosen locations that would be the mostpleasing to the eye and yet appear to be natural. Amongthese trees sheep and cattle grazed assuring that thelawn would always be properly trimmed.

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Near the house, colorful flower gardens were planted toreflect the more natural mood of his surroundings, andthrough his windows the duke could now enjoy his newfountain spewing water far up into the air.

Feeling that he still had not created a perfectenvironment for himself, the duke then had the courseof the river changed to achieve the most graceful possibleappearance, and then had this attractive new bridgeconstructed to reach the house. And, feeling he hadsomehow neglected his horses, he had these enormousstables built, whose roof alone covers almost an acre ofland.

With an estate of this size, over one hundred servantswere needed to keep things running smoothly. Theseservants lived in three different villages on the estatethat looked a lot like this one. But because one of theseservant villages was located uncomfortably close to theduke's house, he decided that the entire village shouldbe relocated so that all he had to see of it was the steepleof its church. And this beautiful servants' village, calledEdensor, is the result of the Duke's relocation efforts.

Today we may think that the job of being a rich man'sservant would be quite a miserable one, but, in truth,being a servant in a great house such as Chatsworthwas one of the best jobs available to a common personduring this era, and the servants who worked hereusually came from the same families generation aftergeneration.

Colonies and WealthDuring the Age of Reason, besides Chatsworth, manyother magnificent homes were constructed in England--always with an eye toward beauty coupled with a deepsense of order--and each one of them took a fantasticamount of money to build.

It is safe to say that nearly all of these houses were paidfor, at least in part, by the wealth their owners derived

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from England's colonies. For at that time England wasthe most powerful country on earth--ruling colonies notonly in America, but on every other continent as well.

Spain, too, possessed a vast colonial empire, and by the1770s was busily establishing a chain of missions in herNorth American province of Alta California.

These missions were intended not only to bringChristianity to the native people, but also served asschools, factories, and colonial military bases.

Colonies produced wealth for their mother countries inseveral ways--either in the form of the taxes the colonistswere required to pay on imported goods, or directly fromthe sale of items produced in the colonies, no matterwhether these were raw materials, agriculturalproducts, or finished goods.

It should also be noted that during the Age of Reason, alarge portion of world trade was in the hands of a fewgreat chartered companies established by certainEuropean monarchs purely to exploit the wealth of theircolonial lands.

For example, the farflung outposts of the Hudson's BayCompany were established because, in 1670, the Kingof England saw to it that company shares were madeavailable to his wealthy friends.

Under its royal charter, the Hudson's Bay Company wasgiven the exclusive right to trap and trade in an area ofunexplored land larger than today's United States, sowhen groups of Hudson's Bay Company trappers out onthe frontier of North America sold beaver pelts, a smallpercentage of each sale went into the pockets of thewealthy shareholders back in Europe and helped to payfor their lavish homes and furnishings.

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The American Colonies: The Movement TowardPolitical IndependenceThe movement toward political independence by 13English colonies in America stemmed in part from a deepresentment of colonial exploitation at the hands of whatmany of the colonists considered to be foreigngovernment that, in their opinion, consisted mostly ofrich spendthrift aristocrats who could both tax them and,at the same time, deprive them of proper representationunder the law.

But an equally important force behind the Americanrevolution can be found in a marvelous ideal that grewout of revolution in thought inspired by Sir Isaac Newtonnearly one hundred years before--namely, theunshakeable belief that if equality and freedom wereallowed to flourish in an atmosphere of reason, respect,and faith in God, there were few limits to what a humanbeing might achieve.

THE END

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Age of ReasonEurope After the Renaissance

Catalog #2526ISBN No. 1-56007-477-9

AGC/United Learning1560 Sherman Avenue, Suite 100Evanston, Illinois 60201(800) 323-9084, Fax (847) 328-6706http://www.agcunitedlearning.come-mail: info@agcunited.com