Argumentative Essay: The Enlightenment In America

The Enlightenment in America “Reading furnishes the mind with materials of knowledge; it is thinking that makes what we read ours.” –John Locke

In the time period of 1714-1818, the American Enlightenment was an intellectual movement during the eighteenth century in the thirteen colonies that focused on reason and science. In this time, there were several different kinds of thinking going on, and it depended on what the person believed in. Then there were six key ideas that came to interrupt the American Enlightenment. This would give different perspectives on thinking and actions. The Enlightenment had four American Enlightenment thinkers that would be significant throughout the eighteenth century in America.

During the Enlightenment age of thinking, there are five types of ideas that would take place. The first one would be moderate

Deism is the belief in existences of a supreme being, specifically of a creator who does not intervene in the universe. James Madison, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, John Adams and George Washington, both moderate and radical American Enlightenment thinkers, were deists. “Franklin was remembered for stating in the Constitutional Convention that “the longer I live; the more convincing proof I see of this truth—that God governs in the affairs of men.”” (Ralston)

Liberalism is another idea that was crucial to the American Enlightenment thinking. It meant, “that humans have natural rights and government authority is not absolute but based on the will and consent of the governed.” (Ralston) Early liberalism preferred a parliamentarian form of government that shielded liberty of expression and movement, the right to petition the government, separation of church and state and a confluence of public and private interests in philanthropic and entrepreneurial endeavors.