Reformation And The Scientific Revolution: Necessary Background For The Enlightenment

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Western Culture Final Examine the Reformation and the Scientific Revolution as the necessary background for the Enlightenment. How do they prepare for this “coming of age”? Focus on Osborne’s Luther and Brecht’s Galileo, as well as Kant’s “What is Enlightenment,” but do not limit your essay to them. You will need, of course, to characterize the Enlightenment, too. Luther was dissatisfied with the role of the church in controlling knowledge and dictating the efforts that people had to make to be considered clean in religion, he wrote the first bible in German and used the printing press to reproduce it for the masses. The effects of the work of Luther was the rise of a secular class in the society that was free to think and act as they pleased provided they acted from the purity of their souls. The effects of the empowerment of people to pursue their interests was a reduction in the control of religion on the people and catholic wars on the deviants that culminated in a less controlling environment by the church. The …show more content…

Freud proposes that civilization reduces the ability of human beings to be truly happing by slapping rules that safeguard the interests of the society at the expense of personal happiness. For example, the law for the wellbeing of the society enforces the suppression of base desires such as the extreme need for sexual satisfaction. Therefore, civilization plays a key role in reducing the happiness derived from the environment. In the book, conformity to these principles of civilization cause anxiety in the characters. For example, the need for compliance to regulations is a function of civilization and it is used to force the Jews to leave their homes(Thomas, 1981). Therefore, there are aspects of civilization reducing happiness in the Jews by compelling them to follow the set