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The Enlightenment in Europe and the Americas (Volume D) Background • classical ideals versus progress and modernity • faith and imagination versus reason • “I” as individual versus society • God as a watchmaker, Deism • reason: “the power by which man deduces one proposition from another, or proceeds from premises to consequences” (Dr. Johnson, Dictionary, 92). Background (continued) • • • • human reason freedom free market Kant, controlled politics • problems with racism and slavery • “progress” Newton Religion • Deism • scientific study as a divine or spiritual study • individual and the universe • Great Chain of Being Society • • • • • social instability decorum, civility social hierarchy gender roles absence of children Decorum • suitable subjects • proper language and style • purpose of writing: to delight and to instruct • artifice or reality? • art’s purpose Alexander Pope “But ALL subsists by elemental strife; And Passions are the elements of Life. The general ORDER, since the whole began, Is kept in Nature, and is kept in Man” (An Essay on Man, lines 169–71). Test Your Knowledge The Enlightenment was a time of great tension between the ideals of __________ . a. tradition and progress b. philosophy and literature c. poetry and drama d. religion and Deism Test Your Knowledge Enlightenment philosophers and writers, regardless of their belief in tradition or progress, tended to value which of the following? a. imagination b. natural philosophy c. reason d. realism Test Your Knowledge The topic of children is largely absent from Enlightenment writing because __________. a. infant mortality was so high b. children were not understood to possess reason c. children were not taught to read until adulthood d. the topic of children was considered indecorous Test Your Knowledge What was “the Great Chain of Being” as Enlightenment thinkers understood it? a. a guide to proper behavior and decorum b. the historical royal lineage c. part of God as a “watchmaker” d. a hierarchy that put everything in its place Test Your Knowledge The Enlightenment ideal of decorum suggested that ____________. a. all subjects were fit for literature b. all literary genres were equally important c. literary subjects must be fitted to their appropriate genre d. genre was always more important than subject This concludes the Lecture PowerPoint presentation for The Norton Anthology of World Literature Visit the StudySpace at: http://wwnorton.com/studyspace For more learning resources, please visit the StudySpace site for The Norton Anthology Of World Literature.