ENGLISH LITERATURE (CBSE/UGC NET)

Detailed explanation-1: -The Age of Reason was a period during the Enlightenment and a time when rationalism gained in popularity. Philosophers such as Descartes, Spinoza, and Leibniz were responsible for articulating the fundamental beliefs of rationalism.

Detailed explanation-2: -2: Rationalism. Rationalism, or a belief that we come to knowledge through the use of logic, and thus independently of sensory experience, was critical to the debates of the Enlightenment period, when most philosophers lauded the power of reason but insisted that knowledge comes from experience.

Detailed explanation-3: -Rationalism is a method of thinking that is marked by being a deductive and abstract way of reasoning. In ordinary usage rationalism is a basic sense of respect for reason or to refer to the idea that reason should play a large role in human life (in contrast, say, to mysticism).

Detailed explanation-4: -The difference between rationality and reason is merely one of the direction of view and function, but this includes the fact that the one cannot deputize for the other. Reason cannot take on rationality’s responsibility to make assertions about objects and to constitute domains.

Detailed explanation-5: -Discussion. Summary point: Enlightenment thinkers placed particular emphasis on empirical knowledge and what they described as scientific method: that is, knowledge verifiable by reference to experiment, experience or first-hand observation. Empiricism was applied to every aspect of human thought and activity.