October 2008 Archives

               There are many signs of how the Enlightenment affected not only the people of its era, but the people of today.  It and its concepts are present in many pieces of literature, philosophy, and other areas of study, but it is especially evident in history.  Proof of how the Enlightenment affected history is in the Declaration of Independence, which was written by Thomas Jefferson.

To understand this proof, one must understand the Enlightenment.  The Enlightenment, sometimes called the Age of Reason, was a period of history that started in the late 1600s.  It was started as an attempt to make the ideas of the Scientific Revolution popular in society.  Those who followed the Enlightenment were thinkers who wanted change from the old traditional civilization.  The thinkers of the Enlightenment followed three basic concepts: the concept of reason, the concept of nature, and the concept of change and progress.  The concept of reason stated that everything was subject to reasoning.  Through this concept, people believed that things should not be accepted because of a test of time, but that they should be looked at carefully using reason.  The second concept of Enlightenment was the concept of nature.  This concept said that nature generally has an order and keep that order, regardless of prayers or other phenomena.  It also says that humans have corrupted nature with all of their restrictions.  The last concept of the Enlightenment is that of Change and Progress.   This concept viewed change as a good thing, as opposed to the previous distrust of change and the idea that it was a step down from what had previously existed.  All three concepts form Enlightenment, whose concepts are evident in the Declaration of Independence.

Deism is evident in the Declaration of Independence as well.  It was a religious movement that occurred with the Enlightenment.  It says that all people have the ability to know God through reason, and that God was a rational architect.  Followers of Deism believed that knowledge from God didn't come from revelation or from Jesus, but from reasoning.

The effects of the Enlightenment are clearly evident in the Declaration of Independence, starting in the very first paragraph.  Jefferson writes that it is "necessary for one People to dissolve the Political Bands which have connected them with another," obviously calling for change and reform, which was one of the main concepts of enlightenment (Jefferson 1).   He extends this idea of change and reform throughout the entire piece, stating "it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it [the form of government], and to institute a new Government" (1).   He clearly does not believe that the old form was beneficial because of the tradition, as the people opposed to the Enlightenment did, because he says, "it is their Duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future Security" (1).   He continues to comment on how oppressive the old form of government had been as he talks about the king.  He complains about how the king has "refused his Assent to Laws," "forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing Importance," "refused to pass other Laws for the Accommodation of large Districts of People," "called together Legislative Bodies at Places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the Depository of their public Records," "dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly," "refused...to cause others to be elected," and "endeavoured to prevent the Population of these States" (1-2).  Furthermore, he "obstructed the Administration of Justice," "made Judges dependent on his Will alone," "erected a Multitude of new Offices," "kept among us...without the consent of [the] Legislature," and other despicable acts (2).  This way of thinking is clearly influenced by the Enlightenment because the people involved in the Enlightenment believed that "change, when dictated by reason and when in line with nature, liberates individuals and should be pursued" (Harrison 469).  He clearly believes that the king's unreasonableness dictates through reason the necessity for change. 

Just as the Declaration of Independence was heavily influenced by the Age of Reason, it was also influenced by Deism.   According to an entry in the Dictionary of Christianity in America, Thomas Jefferson was "the most forceful deist of the period," so the ideas of Deism played a part in his writings, including the Declaration of Independence (470).   In the first paragraph, it speaks of "the Laws of Nature" and "Nature's God," which both show the belief in a rational creator of the universe (1).  In the same way, the document talks about the "Creator" who created people "with certain unalienable Rights," which also shows the idea of God as a rational architect (1).

                Clearly, Thomas Jefferson used ideas from the Enlightenment and Deism in the Declaration of Independence.  Although both movements were introduced many years ago, they are still alive in today's society because of documents like it.

Works cited:

Harrison, J., R Sullivan, and D. Sherman. A Short History of Western Civilization, 6^th ed. New York: Alfred

 Knopf, 1985.

Reid, Daniel G., ed. Dictionary of Christianity in America. Downer's Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1990.

Heather Huckstadt

Directed Writing 4

                Thomas Aquinas, a man from the 1200s, was, to many people, a genius in regards to theology.  He lived shortly after the reintroduction of Aristotle to Europe, so he used a mixture of Aristotelian philosophy and the Christian faith to form his ideas.  He recorded many of his ideas in books, such as Summa Contra Gentiles.  In this book, Aquinas uses the principle of non-contradiction and the ability of the human mind to know the truth and combines them with the idea that there is harmony between faith and reason.

                It is especially evident that Thomas Aquinas got some of his ideas from the philosopher Aristotle because of the use of the principle of non-contradiction in chapter seven of Summa Contra Gentiles.   The principle of non-contradiction, one of the three primary truths, states that opposite assertions cannot be true at the same time.  For example, the same thing cannot be present and not present at the same time.  It is impossible for something to be and to not be at the same time.   This is one of the concepts that people must accept without proof, and Thomas Aquinas shows that he accepts it and promotes it through his work.

                Also evident in Summa Contra Gentiles is the idea that the mind has the ability to know the truth.  He shows that he believes in this concept merely by the fact that he writes about the truth.  If human minds did not possess the ability to know the truth, most of his writings would be too hard to understand, and he himself, being human, would not have been able to have written them.  Thus, through his writings, Thomas Aquinas uses the first condition, the ability of the mind to know the truth, to explain what he believes.  

                The truth that Thomas Aquinas communicates in chapter seven is that the truth of science is not in opposition to the truth of Christianity.  He says that the truth of the Christian faith is much more complicated than what humans can understand, but those things that humans can understand are true since they are natural.  These things are so natural that it is impossible to think they are false, just as it is unlawful to think that God's truths are false.  Since the opposite of true is false, it is impossible for the truth of faith to be against the natural principles of reason. Thomas Aquinas says that since nature is from God, the principles that occur in nature are from God as well.  Because of this, truths gotten through revelation and natural knowledge cannot contradict one another because both kinds are from God.

                Thomas Aquinas demonstrates his truth, the harmony of reason and faith, with the principle of non-contradiction and the first condition, the ability of the mind to know the truth.  The principle of non-contradiction and the first condition are especially clear when he says, "Now contrary opinions cannot be together in the same subject.  Therefore God does not instill into man any opinion of belief contrary to natural knowledge" (334).   Different opinions in the same group would be contradictory, so in stating that the contrary opinions cannot be together in the same subject, Thomas Aquinas demonstrates the principle of non-contradiction.  By trusting the reader to read the truth and accept it, Thomas Aquinas is using the first condition, the ability of the mind to know the truth.  Together, these primary truths help Thomas Aquinas show his idea that faith and reason do not contradict one another.   Instead of contradicting one another, there is harmony between them.  Thomas Aquinas also uses the authority of Augustine, who says, "That which truth shall make known can nowise be in opposition to the holy books whether of the Old or of the New Testament" (334).  By adding an authority figure like Augustine, a church father, Thomas Aquinas strengthens his argument that was already very strong because of the primary truths that exist in and about it.  Because of his previous arguments and the support of the Bible and Augustine, "we may evidently conclude that whatever arguments are alleged against the teachings of faith, they do not rightly proceed from the first self-evident principles instilled by nature.  Wherefore they lack the force of demonstration, and are either probable or sophistical arguments, and consequently it is possible to solve them" (334).  The last phrases really sum up Thomas Aquinas' position.   

                As the heading of the chapter states, "the truth of reason is not in opposition to the truth of the Christian faith" (333).  Thomas Aquinas' proof is in the primary truths, the principle of non-contradiction and the condition of the ability of the mind to know the truth.