17th Century Witers The Age of Reason Essay - 1139 Words

The 17th century was considered the â€Å"Age of Reason†, along with the final years of the artistic and cultural movement, the Renaissance. Writers at this time were influenced by these social revolutions, along with other historical events. Theories about emotion and reason sprung during this time period, which were expressed in literature by poets and authors such as Robert Herrick, William Shakespeare, and Thomas Hobbes. Shakespeare’s play, King Lear is a great representation on the relationship of reason and emotion. The design of reason and emotion was being developed during the 17th century. They related the ideas of emotion with words such as ‘passion’ and ‘affect,’ (Schmitter, Amy M.) These terms of emotion contrast†¦show more content†¦In his poem To Daffodils, he compares human life to daffodils, which shows how short the human lifespan is, with the line â€Å"We have short time to stay, as you†. Herrick also he responds to the prospect of his inevitable death by affirming life, but life lived modestly and taken as it comes, the bad with the good (poetry foundation). A man who stated his thoughts rather than being interpreted through poetry and novels was Thomas Hobbes.According to Williams, Hobbes was founding father of modern political philosophy. He was an english philosopher who was known for his political thought(Williams). He had many ideas about human nature and wrote about them in his book Leviathan. Hobbes makes a list of thirty six different passions in Leviathan. Examples of his ideas were: (Chapter 11) Happiness is a continual progress of desires from one object to another, the attaining of one being merely the path to the next. The object of mans desire is not to enjoy something only once, but to assure All mens voluntary actions and inclinations tend to procure and assure a centered life. Desire for praise disposes men to praiseworthy actions- ones that will please the people who seek judgement they value. Frugality makes a man unlikely to succeed in actions that requires the strength of many men at once. Lack of science inclines a men to rely on the advice and authority of others. Ignorance of the meaning of words