The Context of Ideas in the 18th C.

1. Observation: The action or process of observing something or someone carefully in order to gain information. In the context of the Enlightenment, observation refers to the empirical method used in science to gather data about the natural world.
2. Nature: The phenomena of the physical world collectively, including plants, animals, the landscape, and other features and products of the earth. During the Enlightenment, nature became a subject of intense study and understanding it was seen as a way to understand God’s creation.
3. Reason: The power of the mind to think, understand, and form judgments logically. Enlightenment thinkers believed that reason could be used to challenge traditional authority and discover truths about the world.
4. Skepticism: A skeptical attitude; doubt as to the truth of something. In this context, it refers to the Enlightenment thinkers’ skepticism towards traditional beliefs and dogmas that could not be proven by reason or observation.
5. Empiricism: The theory that all knowledge is derived from sense-experience. This philosophical belief was central to the scientific revolution of the Enlightenment, as it emphasized the role of evidence and experience in forming knowledge.

Neoclassical / Augustan Poetry

1. Reason: had a more prestigious place during the neoclassical period than feelings. Reason is guided by conscious and in physical matter by the ordered laws of the universe and the principle of following nature.
2. Follow Nature: Follow nature means representing the universal permanent and representative elements in the moral or intellectual experiences of man, in other words following nature means explaining the permanent truth of humanity.
3. The Original:
4. The General: Neoclassical writers prioritized the explanation of "The General" over the explanation of the particular. Human nature is now examined. As for originality, we can say that it is the ability of the poet to bring the familiar or the general to life.
5. Wit: Explained by John R. as deep thoughts in common language. It also refers to the technical skills of the poet to teach neoclassical values to people.

• For neoclassical authors, they believe that a Poet is made rather than being born as a Poet. They use the technical skills put forward by classical authors.

Satire

• Rhetoric, is just the way one uses language to deliver message to a specific group of people
• Satire is a rhetorical device that attacks its readers in order to compel them to act on their already established moral compass.
• Irony is a rhetorical device that says one thing but really means another
• Sarcasm is meant to simply attack, it does not ask its readers to act like satire does.

1. "Horatian": it involves the practice of exposing human follies through gentle, mild, and light-hearted humor.
2. "Juvenellian": it involves the practice of exposing human follies by biting, abrasive humor.