Rationalism (A Branch of Colonialism)

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Rationalism(A Branch of Colonialism)

• An Overview
• 1700s (1750-early 1800s)

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Reaction to Puritanism

• Americas answer to the emotionally driven
  paranoia of Puritanism
• Dangers of Theocracy
• Salem Witch Trials
• Reason over superstition/self-perceptions/revelati
  on/tradition/authority
• Fundamental religion
• Look to reason for answers rather than just gods
  finger
• Age of Reason Scientific Revolution
• Clock analogy
• Deists
• Religious belief founded on human
  reason/observations of natural world instead of
  the Bible
• Rejection of strict organized religious ruling
  body
• Some Deists believed in an absentee Clockmaker
  God who created the world and set it in motion
  then completely withdrew from it
• Highly controversial

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Philosophies

• Building a true American character/identity
• - basic values on which American society was
  founded
• Rise of patriotism
• Encourage change/independence via
  reading/education (role of rhetoric/persuasion in
  shaping America)
• Revolutionary War
• Values/Morality through the individual
• Democratic Utopia (clearly, the Puritan vision
  was far from this)
• Self-Reliance

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Genre Style

• Political pamphlets
• Travel writing establishing Americas unique
  landscape
• Making it home (instead of England)
• Essays
• Speeches
• Fiction
• Rare
• Basic plots characters finding American and
  individual identity
• Ornate writing style as example of discipline
• Promote independence
• Rhetoric (Persuasion) ethos, pathos, logos
• Thoughtful scientific writing

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Authors Americas Founding Fathers

• Ben Franklin
• Autobiography
• Farmers Almanac
• Thomas Paine
• Rights of Man
• Common Sense
• Patrick Henry
• Speech to the Virginia Convention (Give me
  liberty, or give me death!)