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SENSIBILITY
Sensibility is keen intellectual or emotional perception or responsiveness toward something, such as the feelings of another.
Age of Sensibility
During the Age of Sensibility, literature reflected the worldview of the Enlightenment (or Age of Reason) – a rationalistic and scientific approach to religious, social, political, and economic issues that promoted a secular view of the world and a general sense of progress and perfectibility. The movement was led by philosophers who were inspired by the discoveries of the previous century (Newton) and the writings of Descartes, Locke and Bacon. They sought to discover and to act upon universally valid principles governing humanity, nature, and society. They variously attacked religious and scientific authority, dogmatism, intolerance, censorship, and economic and social restraints. They considered the state to be the proper and rational instrument of progress. The extreme rationalism and skepticism of the age led naturally to deism; the same qualities played a part in bringing the later reaction of romanticism.
The Encyclopédie of Denis Diderot epitomized the spirit of the age.
Increased emphasis on instinct and feeling, rather than judgment and restraint. A growing sympathy for the Middle Ages during the Age of Sensibility sparked an interest in medieval ballads and folk literature.
The novel of sensibility
See: sentimental novel
See also
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