Different Kinds of Progress - Stephen Hawkings a Brief History of Time and Thomas Paines The Age of Reason Free Essay Example, 2750 words

Thomas Paine s The Age of Reason was written in the form of a pamphlet, a popular form of written literature in, particularly 17TH and 18th century Britain and America. Paine used the pamphlet to compress his ideas and arguments into a tight space and to disseminate these ideas to a very wide audience, because of the cheap production costs of printing the pamphlets. Therefore, Paine s rhetoric is both rich and dense. The pamphlet of this earlier time in American history can be compared to the place that the paperback book has in a contemporary context. Stephen Hawking s A Brief History of Time is considerably longer than Paine s work, and as such contains much more history than Paine contains, but also contains far fewer direct lines of argument. Hawking s book tries to inform the reader of a certain line of history, in order to let the reader participate in a conversation with the writer. The writer, once the reader is well-informed, can engage the reader with subtle hints at a ne w worldview that stresses the importance of a mainly and thoroughly naturalistic conception of the universe. We will write a custom essay sample on Different Kinds of Progress - Stephen Hawkings a Brief History of Time and Thomas Paines The Age of Reason or any topic specifically for you Only $17.96 $11.86/page Thomas Paine is known for his simple, clear, and straightforward use of language to persuade his audiences (Foner). This is because his pamphlets reached a wide variety of people, due to their cheapness and wide dissemination. He used this clear and concise style with great effectiveness, especially in The Age of Reason , in which he tries to convince everyday people of the rational religion and the evils of institutionalized worship.