ical sensations interpreted by the mechanical faculties of reason, memory, and judgment, were the entire basis of knowledge and experience. “ In addition, he contributed the doctrines of self-reliance and the assumption of rights, which basically guaranteed the unalienable rights of life and freedom to all men. Another vital man of the Enlightenment was Benjamin Franklin. Besides his many notable inventions and discoveries, Franklin contributed a great deal to American philosophy. He believed that the most honorable thing to do was to be of use to society. Franklin also conceived that the perfection of oneself was absolutely possible since the universe and therefore mankind was based entirely on reason and logic. With the arrival of the American Revolution came a drastic increase in the desire of Americans to be cut loose from the English monarchy in every sense of the matter. Democracy came to be seen not just as an option, but as the only feasible option in running a government free of corruption. Thomas Paine incited a great deal of Americans against the British in his incendiary and rhetoric-filled essays. ...
