ipl-logo

Compare And Contrast Edwards And Jeffersonians

1282 Words6 Pages

Following the European Enlightenment of the 17th Century, an intellectual movement arose in the New World inspired by the Newtonian and Lockean schools of thought. The 18th Century American Enlightenment absorbed Newton’s notions of law and order and combined them with Locke’s approach that law and order can be observed using the five human senses: touch, taste, sight, hearing, and smell. This movement would become the foundation of American political and social theory and would dominate the American school of thought until Darwinism in the 19th Century. Although different in numerous ways, two types of American intellectuals, Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) and The Jeffersonians, emerged during this period sharing one major assumption. Edwards and the Jeffersonians both based their theories and philosophies upon the same assumption of a natural order created by God which was bestowed upon humankind to be observed. Edwards was a Puritan minister who expanded on earlier Puritan discoveries on the importance of experience. Gaining experience through natural observation and figuring out how the world, and the human mind, works was essential to Edwards. …show more content…

Following Franklin’s death, Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) and his “Jeffersonian Circle” would “inherit the mantle of the American philosopher” (Boorstin, 8, 12). The men who comprised this Jeffersonian Circle consisted of Jefferson, David Rittenhouse (1732-1796), Dr. Benjamin Rush (1745-1813, Benjamin Smith Barton (1766-1815), Joseph Priestley (1733-1804), Charles Wilson Peale (1741-1827), and Thomas Paine (1737-1809). These men all specialized in a wide variety of fields of study including medicine, science, politics, and theology. However, considering the eclectic focus of these individuals, all of them relied on a common assumption of natural order which could be

Show More
Related
1270 Words | 6 Pages

Jonathan Edwards was a critical thinker in shaping the First Great Awakening and did this through his congregation in Northampton in New England. Edwards was born on October 5, 1703 in East Windsor, Connecticut to a minister and a daughter of Reverend Solomon Stoddard. Edwards prepared for his schooling by his father and elder siblings to later attend Yale College where two years after graduation he studied theology. While in college, Edwards took a liking to science, but unlike other students that went toward deism, he “saw the natural world as evidence of God’s masterful design,”(Marsden) Jonathan Edwards used his interest of science and the natural world in his sermons as evidence to God’s greatness on Earth. As he grew up and became a fill in pastor for different churches throughout the Northeast, he realized that he was not satisfied with his conversion.

Read More
465 Words | 2 Pages

As a leader of the party, Thomas Jefferson upheld general Democratic-Republican values for a majority of his presidency. After being elected in 1800, Jefferson stated, in a letter to one of his future cabinet members, “The true theory of our Constitution is surely the wisest and best that the states are independent as to everything within themselves” (Doc A). Jefferson stated his overall views as traditionally being in favor of state’s independence. He further reinforces his traditional Republican beliefs by expressing that the government should not be involved with religious affairs.

Read More
116 Words | 1 Pages

Thomas Jefferson during the 1790’s-1800’s while working with federalists Alexander Hamilton, his viewpoints were different. During the 1790’s Jefferson was known to be in the democratic-republican party where he progresses an ideal structure of equivalencies between money and weight standards with the American/Spanish currency. Jefferson took charge of the republicans after a conflict created two parties, republican-democratic and the federalist, who empathized with the revolutionary cause in France. While attacking the federalist policies, Jefferson opposed a strong centralized government and granted the rights of states. While Jefferson was in presidency, he cut down on the Army and Navy expenditures, cut the U.S. budget, eliminated the tax

Read More
879 Words | 4 Pages

When comparing Sam Adams, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and John Adams, we can see that there are some similarities and differences between the men. Perhaps the most notable relation this group has, is that they were all formal presidents and had some type of power or ownership. The qualities of all four men are often seen as opposed to each other. One similarity for example, with George Washington and Thomas Jefferson was that they were prosperous Virginian plantation owners and held slaves. Jefferson and Adams were both well educated people and knew about the law.

Read More
316 Words | 2 Pages

The Enlightenment is a period of time during the 17th and 18th century that brought forth many new, revolutionary ideas regarding social, political, and economic issues. Such ideas aided the founding fathers in their creation of a new government that would soon be the United States of America. Two of these founders, Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson, differed in their political reasoning. For example, while Jefferson believes that the people “can be trusted with their own government,” Hamilton argues that the people “seldom judge or determine right.” Hamilton favored a type of government that would put a select few (the rich) in charge of the people, while Jefferson favored a government that would put the people in total control.

Read More
943 Words | 4 Pages

He argues that rather than a document inspired by Locke, Jefferson’s declaration is inspired by the moral-sense philosophy that is found in the theory of the Scottish Enlightenment. Wills makes his argument by presenting three different aspects of the Declaration, in regards to science, morals, and sentiment. At the time of the American Revolution, the scientific enlightenment was influencing much of colonial thinking, including that of Jefferson (131). Part of this influence included Jefferson’s reliance on number to solve problems and craft responses to major events of his day (143). One of the outcomes of enlightenment thought was an “effort to create a science of man based on numerical gauges of all his activities” (151).

Read More
147 Words | 1 Pages

George Washington and Thomas Jefferson were great presidents but i believe that Abraham Lincoln was far better. He abolished slavery and held the country together during one of it's hardest times and doing all this with the pressure of an entire country relying on him. But it would have been better if he wasn't killed during his term I beleive that if he wouldn't have died America would be doing a lot better then it is now Lincoln would have been an amazing president if he didn't die he probably would have served another term or two. Even though everyone loved George Washington, Lincoln was also very popular among the people he also had the potential to make America a way better place.

Read More
705 Words | 3 Pages

All of the colonies, except for Georgia, were well established by the beginning of the eighteenth century. The early 1700s was thus a time of colonial growth. Colleges were founded, new achievements in the arts and sciences occurred, and the colonies experienced many events that would influence their history. Many of the developments of the era before the Seven Years War failed to result in actual change. The Zenger Trial is considered a major influence of the Bill of Rights and democracy in the post-Revolution era, but the only immediate effect was to promote riskier criticism of the government in the press.

Read More
154 Words | 1 Pages

America. Jefferson Davis, who was elected as a president of the Confederate States of America, was as eloquent proslavery president of the Confederacy. He believed that slavery was the crucial factor in Sothern States’ wealth. Jefferson Davis view of the Constitution was a contrary to what Frederick Douglas believed. He saw the Constitution as a great protections for whites.

Read More
294 Words | 2 Pages

The Enlightenment views were influenced in Jefferson's Declaration. The most obvious one was Jefferson's deist view of God, which interpreted God in a scientific way rather than in a supernatural way. In the Declaration, he declared that it was the "nature's God" that gave them the rights to separate from the government. He did not say that it was a Catholic's God or a Protestant's God, but a God that belonged to the nature. By doing so, he was able to encompass all the people that were in the colonial states at the time.

Read More
283 Words | 2 Pages

Political parties, Democratic Republicans and Federalists, started in the U.S. because of differing views of Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson, and the influence of newspapers. Jefferson’s and Hamilton’s different ways of thinking(mostly on issues that was beneficial for the country) played a huge part in the start of political parties. They fought about economy. Jefferson liked farming while Hamilton preferred manufacturing and trade. Interpretation of the Constitution was another thing they fought upon.

Read More
177 Words | 1 Pages

Both Thomas Paine and Thomas Jefferson like many of the founding fathers of America share a ideology concerning independence and freedom in general. Although the two were notably talented writers, the difference in their arguments was their respective deliveries, writing styles, and their timing. Personally, I agree more with the way Thomas Paine chose to present his point of view. Common sense, for example, was a significant eye-opener for many Americans. One of the only reasons it made such huge impact was because it was written in a style that was easy to understand for the average American.

Read More
342 Words | 2 Pages

Compare the backgrounds of Jefferson and Paine; did Paine have an advantage or disadvantage by not being born in the colonies? Explain. Paine had the advantage of being able to see the issues from the outside and from a lower point of society. To be able to understand a bigger group of people is far more of an advancement than to always target the smaller group. Which was the cause of the colonies not wanting to be under rule.

Read More
922 Words | 4 Pages

There were a lot of American men who had perfect influence on people’s mind of American society. Jonathan Edward and Benjamin Franklin were two of those writers, who were the most important and intellectual men, who left behind many admirable works for the future society. In spite of them being so intelligent, they have some different and similar views in terms of morality, personal responsibility, human nature, and limits of human knowledge and inform people how to live a better life. In addition, they were different in terms of religious inclinations. Benjamin Franklin and Jonathan Edward were both philosopher and had similar views in terms of informing people the right way to live in order to be successful and get salvation by reforming their mind in their life.

Read More
892 Words | 4 Pages

The Enlightenment was a period during the 1600 and 1700s where authority, power, government and law was questioned by philosophers. The causes of the Enlightenment was the Thirty Years’ War, centuries of mistreatment at the hands of monarchies and the church, greater exploration of the world, and European thinkers’ interest in the world (scientific study). A large part of the Enlightenment was natural law, which was the belief that people should live their lives and organize their society on the basis of rules and precepts laid down by nature or God; the principles of the Enlightenment in the 1600s through the 1700s influenced the development of the USA by advocating religious and social freedom, freeing the people from oppression, and providing

Read More

More about Compare And Contrast Edwards And Jeffersonians

Related Topics

Open Document