Thomas Paine: The Age of Reason

Thoughts/Ideas

• 1) God’s greatest gift to human kind is the ability to reason.

• 2) Paine also reflects on the ideas that while we are told something happened, there are a very small amount of actual witnesses, and we are called upon to believe their statements.

• 3) Paine, using reason, tries to find truth in the Bible, and its stories…Ex: Mary having a kid (Jesus) while remaining a virgin. He finishes by declaring the Bible stories and writers are false.

Quotes

• “I believe in one God, and no more; I hope for happiness beyond this life.”

• “I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish Church, by the Roman Church, by the Greek Church…nor by any church that I know of. My own mind is my own church.”

• When speaking on Jesus’ ascension: “A small number of persons, maybe 8 or 9, are introduced as proxies for the whole world, to say they saw it, and all the rest of the world are called upon to believe it”

Thomas Paine

The age of Reason

By Max Satter

Background Thomas Paine (Feb. 9 1737- June 8th 1809) was a revolutionary writer,

pamphleteer, intellectual, and inventor. Paine spent time in countries throughout the world, and had heavy influences on these countries. A few examples of countries that he affected are France, England (his home country), and the U.S. He is recognized as one of the founding fathers of the United States, but also played a fairly prominent role in the French Revolution. Throughout his lifetime, Paine had several works that were revolutionary, and still are widely and studied in the 21st Century. Possibly his most widely known pamphlet, “Common Sense” wasThomas Paine’s first major work to receive recognition. This pamphlet, which was published in 1776, sparked the American Revolution, and is also often credited with starting the construction of, and influencing the Declaration of Independence. His next influential publication was “Crisis.” This series of pamphlets was written in 1776 as well, and was meant to encourage the weary American troops. Published in 1791-1792, “The Rights of Man” also focused on a revolution, this one being in France. The views in this work were critical of France’s government at the time, and supported the French Revolution, contrasting Edmund Burke’s disapproval of the revolution in “Reflections on the Revolution in France.” Paine’s last prominent work of art was “The Age of Reason.” Unlike his previous pamphlets and books, this compilation was not focused on addressing a revolution. It focused on Deism, and denounced Christian miracles as superstitions, instead promoting natural religion, science, and reason, three traits very reflective of the Enlightenment Period. Later on in this presentation, the main points of "The Age of Reason” will be further addressed, examined, and interpreted.

Understanding “The Age of Reason”

The “Age of Reason” exemplifies The Deist point of view on life, and the ideals that were valued during the age of enlightenment. Three very interconnected points made by Paine in “The Age of Reason” are:

• Thomas Paine, like other Deists believed in god. Paine believed in God’s creation of earth, yet unlike most other religions (including Catholicism and Judaism) believed that god’s influence stopped there. His idea that god does not interfere with worldly matters and does not play an active role in governing is stated throughout “The Age of Reason.” A comparison that can be made to a Deist’s outlook on God’s role in life is the job of a clockmaker. A clockmaker makes his or her watches, winds them up, and then lets them go, never interfering with them again.

• Another main point that Paine addressed was that the bible and many other holy texts contained a great deal of hearsay that could not be validated. As a man of logic and reason, he could not accept many stories within these texts. In congruence with the first point stated here, Paine went on to denounce Christian mysteries, miracles, and supernatural feats , due to the fact that there is no valid proof of these mysterious events. Another reason Paine didn’t believe in these events is that God would have been the one to do these things, and according to Deism, God does not influence the lives of humans.

• Instead of these supernatural occurrences, Paine believed in a natural religion which agreed with reason and science. Paine also emphasized the equality of man, and that one should love, respect, and show mercy to fellow human beings.

• The points shown here made by Paine reflect how he was a great thinker of the enlightenment. He did not accept the beliefs and findings of other people or take them for granted, and instead believed in science, logic, and reason. His belief that all men are equal, and that they deserve the same treatment and opportunities, also was a trait of the Enlightenment.

Symbol and Quote interpretationQuote interpretation

“My mind is my own church.”In this quote, Paine was saying that he worshipped in his own unique way, and that his beliefs stemmed from his own thinking, inferring, and use of reason,

not from blindly following the ideas of a religion, or the ideas and stories stated within a religious text. This statement

shows that his beliefs were in agreement with new ideas expressed in

the Enlightenment. Like many other thinkers of the Enlightenment, Paine didn’t accept everything told to him, instead he attempted to overturn the stigma around religion. This is “an

enlightened” statement because he is finding his own morals and own beliefs

using reason and science.

Symbol

A clockmaker is an appropriate symbol to associate with Thomas Paine’s views on religion, because in his opinion, they essentially have the same job as God. That job would be to create something that manages itself, and to let it run its course. This belief is a very deistic belief, and is explored in “The Age of Reason.”

By Connor Hyman and Benjamin Smith

Observations and Ideals• “Many who went in jail healthy are in a few months

changed to emaciated dejected objects” –Howard, Prisons in England and Wales

• “It will perhaps be asked, does not their work maintain them?” -Howard, Prisons in England and Wales

• Wanted to reform prisons to be more fair to the inmates.

• Saw abuse and ignorance in jails and Bridewells [jails for those convicted of lesser crimes.]

• Believed that work was pointless of inmates, since no tools or materials were supplied.

Injustices Fought

• Inside of jails, conditions were uninhabitable• Inmates had little if not any fresh water,

bread, or clothes.• “Lunatic” inmates were kept with those with

lesser charges, who would disturb other inmates, as opposed to being confined.

• No beds, even straw to sleep on were given out.

• For what little resources inmates had, they would steal from each other and those victims would contract diseases.

• Inmates spent their time in “sloth, profaneness, and debauchery”

and Prisons in England and Wales

QUOTE IDEA

1. “I have asked some keepers… why no care is taken of their sick: and have been answered, that the magistrates tell them the act does not extend to Bridewells”

2. “This allowance being so far short of the cravings of nature…many criminals are half starved”

3. “In some Gaols you see…boys of twelve or fourteen eagerly listening to the stories told by practiced and experienced criminals”

1. Prisoners are being denied proper medicine and health care

2. Prisoners are not fed enough to maintain their health

3. Prisoners are being held with others they should not be exposed to

John HowardPrisoners exercising, 18th Century

1724-1804-Immanuel Kant was a German philosopher of the 18th century. He played an important role to the start of the Age of Enlightenment and modern philosophy. Enlightenment was having intellectual thoughts and Ideas. To apply reason and scientific ways of thinking to all aspects of life. During the age of enlightenment people did not stick to old traditions and religious beliefs. People wanted to reform and discover the laws of human society by using reason.

In an essay “ What is Enlightenment” Kant goes on to explain his ideas and thoughts of Enlightenment and societies ways.

Kant believed that by not using a higher lever of thinking people were being lazy and immature. He says immaturity was not being able to use one’s intelligence without the help of someone else’s.

He also believed that there were things stopping people from using a higher level of thinking. He states that freedom was a major cause to the delay of Enlightenment.

He thought that people should be able to publically use reasoning without higher officials telling them they can’t. Constantly in the 16th and 17th century government was absolute most of the time and there was no room to express other ideas if they were not religious. Kant believed there were too many restrictions.

“ All that is required for enlightenment is freedom; and particularly the least harmful of all that may be called freedom, namely the freedom for man to make public use of reason in all matters”

“All our knowledge begins with the senses, proceeds then to the understanding, and ends with reason. There is nothing higher than reason. “

“Act that your principle of action might safely be made a law for the whole world. “

On Crimes and Punishment

1738 - 1794

Blind Justice

“No man can be called guilty before a judge has sentenced him, nor can society deprive him of public protection before it has been decided that he has in fact violated the conditions under which such protection was accorded him.” -Beccaria

-Defending the rights of man.-Defending the unconquerable truth. -Protection -Fact of crime: Certain or uncertain.

“The sensitive innocent man will then confess himself guilty when he believes that, by so doing, he can put an end to his torment.” –Beccaria“The guilty man on the contrary finds himself in a favorable situation…firmly resisted the torture, he is absolved as innocent…escaped greater punishment.” -Beccaria

Blind Justice

-Irregularities of criminal procedures-Are torture and torments just? -Cruelty!-Misuse of power-Choices…

Blind Justice

-Cruelty of punishments-What are the proper punishments of crime?-Death penalty… Useful or necessary?-What is the best way to prevent crimes?

Mary WollstonecraftA Vindication of the Rights of Women

Reminy Bacon 4B

1. Women must be well-educated to help themselves, their society, and their family.

Mary Wollstonecraft believes that a person, especially a woman, deserves to be educated in order to support their families and their community.

• “Women whose minds are not enlarged are very unfit to manage a family.”

• “[I have] a profound conviction that the neglected education is the source of misery…and that women in particular are rendered weak and wretched.”

2. Women deserve equal right under the law and to be treated equally.• “When men contend for their freedom,

and judge…respecting their own happiness, it is unjust to subjugate women. Who made man the…judge?”

• “Let women share rights and she will...emulate the virtues of man and grow more perfect.”

Wollstonecraft is arguing for women’s rights by pointing out the unfairness of men deciding laws concerning women's happiness, which women play no part in. She believes that women deserve to have a say in legal matters that affect that. She also insists that women as a whole will become better, more like men in their good characteristics.

3. Women must be strong and self-reliant; beauty is less important.

• “Strength of the body and mind are sacrificed to…notions of beauty… to the desire of marriage. Can they be expected to govern a family with judgment?”

• “Women whose minds are not engaged… are very unfit to manage a family.”

Wollstonecraft is saying that women relytoo much on beauty when they should really be focusing on strengthening themselves in order to help support their families.

JEAN JAQUES ROUSSEAU

Philosopher, Writer, and Father of Democracy

By Doaa Khalifa and Layla Stover

The Social Contract

• Rousseau rejected the Lockean principal that one person has a natural authority over others “All legitimate authority, he said, stemmed from human traditions, and not from nature.”

• Uniting with others is the best way to gain power and maintain freedom

• “The total alienation of each associate, together with all his rights, to the whole of community… as each gives himself absolutely, the conditions are the same for all; and this being so, no one has any interest in making them burdensome to others.”

Other Works

• Wrote Ếmile on children

and their education

• Thought that children

should not be treated like

adults

• Children need to work and

exercise and learn from

their own experiences

instead of being taught.

SLAVERY

Everett Haddard and Natasha Bynum

Denis DiderotEncyclopedia

• Diderot denounced slavery as a violation of the Natural Rights of beings

• Didn’t believe that kings and princes of Africa had the right to sell their subjects into slavery

• Believed that unless slaves were previously prisoners of war or voluntarily slaves, there was no fair or ethical reason fro them to be forced into slavery

• Thought the law shouldn’t assist in recapturing escaped slaves, and returning them to their owners

“Men and their liberty are not objects of commerce.” - Denise Diderot

Marquis de CondorcetDedicatory Epistle to the Negro Slaves

• Thought that bringing a man into slavery was a crime that was to be considered worse than theft

• Believed in total equality between whites and blacks• Claimed that the philosophes, or 18th century intellectuals of the

Enlightenment, would bring an end to slavery• Compared the oppression of the Africans to the suppression of

French Protestantism

“Although I am not the same color as you,

I have always regarded you as my brothers.”

- Marquis de Condorcet

John WesleyThoughts upon Slavery

• As the founder of Evangelical Methodist movements in England, he reposed slavery from a religious point of view

• Said that even though it was legal in human law, it was illegal in the eyes of God

• Thought that the economic benefits of having slaves was outweighed by the moral consequences of slavery

• In his works, told people to disregard their monetary wants, and begin focusing on issues of morality

“Thou, Saviour of all, make them free,

that they may be free indeed!”- John Wesley

Popular Religion &

RevivalismBy

Edward Sganga

Significant Ideas

• A return to mysticism. John Wesley with emotional mysticism and Count Nikolaus von Zinzendorf.

• A defense of Christianity against Deism.

• A need for rationalism and an end to superstition. (witches)

SymbolThis cross represents

Revivalism. It’s ornate

Design represents

The old role of reason

And a need for rationalism.

The light represents

the new influx of mysticism.

The fact that it is stone

Represents the resistance to Deism.

Portraits & Quotes

“He who wishes to comprehend God with his mind becomes an atheist.” (Nikolaus von Zinzendorf)

“I felt I did trust in Christ alone for salvation; and an assurance was given me that he had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death. I felt my heart Strangely warmed” (John

Wesley)

“more superstitious than devout”

(a Catholic Priest describing his congregation)

John John LockeLocke

Sergio Nazaire

and his partner in crime…Anthony

Bonilla

Thoughts Thoughts and Ideasand Ideas

•The Concept of Ideas

• Natural Rights of Man and Government rule

• Education

A child’s mind at A child’s mind at birthbirth

QuotesQuotesOn Natural Rights of Man On Natural Rights of Man

and Government rule:and Government rule:

“If government fails to fulfill the end for which it was established – the preservation of the individual’s rights to life, liberty, and property – the people have a right to dissolve that government.

On Education:

“The difference to be found in the Manners and Abilities of men, is owing more to their education than to anything

else.”

On the Concept of On the Concept of Ideas:Ideas:

“ Let us suppose the mind to be, as we say, white paper,

void of all characters, without any ideas.

How comes it to be furnished? ... To this

I answer in one word, from experience.”

John Locke: John Locke: After many years of experience and gaining wisdom.

John Locke: John Locke: Earlier Years