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LITR 4231 Early American
Literature Research Posts 2014 (research post assignment) Research Post 1 |
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Kelly Santos
The Enlightenment Era’s Influence on Thomas Jefferson and the Formation
of the United States
I’ve always known little of the Enlightenment Era other than it was a
revolutionary time. I wanted to find out exactly what the period was about and
how it influenced some of our nation’s greatest thinkers. I knew Thomas
Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence but didn’t know he was
influenced by Enlightenment thought. When I found that out, I wanted to try to
figure out how Jefferson’s writing of the Declaration was influenced by the
Enlightenment. I started with learning the background of the movement and
Jefferson’s life.
The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy offers a concise article on what the
Enlightenment Era was. It explains that the Enlightenment began in the middle of
the 17th Century and was a “dramatic revolution” in the way that the society
thought in regards to science, philosophy, society, and politics in both the
theoretical and the practical sense. The article explains how the movement began
with scientific discovery and how discoveries undermined certain ways of
thinking about the world, leading to a new reason-based outlook. The piece did
an excellent job of showing just how the quest for knowledge became the driving
force of Enlightenment thought.
The article "The Life-Centered
Philosophy of Thomas Jefferson" showcases how Jefferson’s insatiable
appetite for knowledge drove him to make discoveries and constantly uncover
truths about the world. The article explains how Jefferson studied everything,
from plants, mountains, manufactures, and laws. It also explained the numerous
inventions made by Jefferson and how skilled he was in areas such as languages
and astronomy. The gist of the article showed that Jefferson was driven by his
appetite for knowledge in order to improve life in the practical sense.
In another article, "American
Enlightenment Thought," I learned that Jefferson substituted the word
“property” for “pursuit of happiness” in the Declaration of Independence.
Drawing from my knowledge of the Enlightenment Era and Jefferson’s biography, I
wasn’t surprised to find that he made that decision. Jefferson seemed to be a
figure always driven to exceed the bounds of human understanding and knowledge.
He appeared to truly believe that all people should be free in the pursuit of
such knowledge. I think that the quest for new understanding and the personal
freedom to think (and believe) for oneself (two pillars of Enlightenment
thought) are what influenced Jefferson in his writing of the Declaration of
Independence.
My next step it to find more specific supporting material about this question.
Now that I have a general understanding of the Enlightenment and Jefferson’s
views and life, I feel that it will be easier for me to narrow down my sources
in order to find more evidence of Enlightenment’s influence of Thomas
Jefferson’s writing of the Declaration of Independence. It is clear to me that
the Enlightenment influenced the Founding Fathers but I want to find specific
examples in the Declaration of Independence that make this clear.
Sources
Bidlnotto, Robert. “The Life-Centered Philosophy of Thomas Jefferson.” Atlas
Society. April 2003. Accessed on March 21, 2014.
http://www.atlassociety.org/thomas_jefferson_philosophy
Bristow, William. “Enlightenment.” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Aug 20,
2010. Accessed on March, 21 2014.
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/enlightenment/
Ralston, Shane. “American Enlightnement,” Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy: A
peer-reviewed academic source. Accessed on March 21, 2014.
http://www.iep.utm.edu/amer-enl/#SH3b
Smith, Nicole. “The Influence of the Enlightenment on the Formation of the
United States.” Articlemyriad. December 7, 2011. Accessed on March 26, 2014.
http://www.articlemyriad.com/influence-enlightenment-formation-united-states/
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