American Self / American Enlightenment

The readings we will discuss tomorrow--from Jonathan Edwards through Franklin to Creveceour--take us from a relentless form of Calvinism in Edwards' "Sinners in the Hands of An Angry God" to an icon of American Enlightenment thinkers, Thomas Jefferson.

If you feel a bit fuzzy on the term "Enlightenment," you should make a quick visit to the bartleby and britanica reference sources listed on the web site. A blurb from The Dictionary of Philosophy (W.A. Resse) may also help: "Englightenment -- A term used to characterize 18th-century culture... The period whose motto, according to Immanuel Kant was "Dare to know" was shaped by optimism with respect to the possibilities of reason in conrolling human life" (148).

As you think about the differences between Edwards and Franklin, you may find food for thought in another philosophical term used to refer to Enlightenment religious thought: "Deism...attempted to replace revelation with the light of reason...the movement held to a belief in 1) one God who created the world but does not intervene in its present functioning, either by way of revelation or miracle, 2) an objective difference between right and wrong, 3) the duty of life as support of the right, 4) the immortality of the soul, and 5) our condition in the life to come as related to ehtical conduct in this life.

For our discussion tomorrow I would like to contrast the moral and ethical visions of these two great intellectuals of 18th century America--Edwards and Franklin--and consider how their differences frame the visions of America suggested by Creveceour in his letters and Jefferson in the Declaration. I will ask each of you to contribute passages and interpretations to our discussion of Edwards and Franklin.

After discussing Edwards and Franklin, we will move on to Creveceour. As you know from your introduction to the Creveceour selections, Letters from an American Farmer shifts from an ebullient celebration of America to a much less optimistic view. I would like us to trace this evolution and compare what Creveceour has to tell us about what it means to be American with the ideal of America presented by Jefferson's Declaration of Independence.