The Age of Reason

The Age of Reason

• The Age of Reason: Rationalism, Classicism, The Age of Pope, The Augustan Age, The
Age of Enlightment

Isaac Newton (1642-1726) believed:

• in the intelligible laws in nature which could be demonstrated by physics and
mathematics;
• that the universe exibited a magnificent symmetry and a mechanical certainty;
• that the universe could not have arisen out of a Chaos, but by the mere Laws of Nature;
• that there is order, law and design in creation.
John Locke (1632-1704) rejected inner ideas in favour of the notion of knowledge
based on external sensation and internal reflection;
• the mind at birth is tabula rasa, it acquires reason and knowledge from experience;
• Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1640):
The words are signs not of things but of ideas and language is a
creation of a society of people who agree that words stand for ideas;
 The Age of Reason
historical circumstances
• James II supported Roman Catholics
• In 1688 William of Orange was invited to supplant his father-in-law and to deliver England
from his royal oppression; he was supported during his rapid advance towards London.
• After James II’s abdication of the throne, William and Mary, James’s Anglican daughter, were
declared sovereigns of England in February 1689. This was called “bloodless” or “Glorious
Revolution”. Protestant succession was secured and this was a turning point in the British
history, rule of law was ensured and the dominance of the Parliament in England.
• Westminister Parliament voted for the Act of Settlement by which the English crown was to
pass to the House of Hanover, but Scotland did not automatically follow suit. England and
Scotland were united by their Stuart inheritance but still divided by their distinct legal,
religious and parliamentary systems which caused hostility between the two kingdoms. Due
to the diplomacy and vested interests of the aristocratic agents of both sides, the hostility
was averted. A Treaty of Union was extensively debated in the winter of 1706-1707 and on 1
May 1707 the “Act for Union of the Two Kingdoms of England and Scotland” came into
effect. The Union made for the single kingdom of Great Britain with an agreed royal
succession and a single national flag; it united that two parliaments into one an enabled to
all subjects of the united kingdom freedom of trade and navigation. Scotland preserved its
distinctive legal and religious traditions and won access to the trade with North America.
England gained security on the island free of the threat of future secession of its poorer
neighbour.
 The Age of Reason
historical circumstances
• The ideal of harmonious political order reflecting that
of nature was realized in the triumph of practical
reason, liberal religion and impartial law.
• The two great Jacobite Rebellions in 1715 and 1745
expressed the Scotish dissent from the new regime;
the Riots in Edinbourugh in 1736 and the Gordon
Riots in London in 1780 also expressed oppositions to
the Government. All these rebellions and riots were a
reminder of the existence of an alternative mode of
government and of a distinct, archaic form of society.
 The Age of Reason
• The Age of Reason was an age of practical and
trade interests, of great naval discoveries and
colonial expansion. The ideological grounds of the
political order and scientific thought became
rational and mundane, the scientific worldview
supplanted religion. It was an age of innovations,
scientific and technological progress. All scholars
believed that the human mind was able to solve
all human problems relying on facts and logical
argumentation based on facts.