The Enlightenment

Advancement from Enlightenment

As the 1900's rolled around, many changes were to come. New leaders, government styles, and new ideas were just the start. The main focus of the Enlightenment era was based on reason, rationalism, and the idea of "Inevitable Progress." Enlightenment was pushed forward by great people such as Kant, Bulgaria, Thomas Jefferson, Isaac Newton, Francois-Marie Ardouet de Voltaire, Thomas Hobbes, to name a few. As the 20th century rapidly approached, the enlightenment was strongly criticized and new ideas were on the rise. This era uncovered one of the greatest philosophers of the 20th century, Sigmund Freud. Freud rejected the philosophy of reason and replaced it with his philosophy of influence of non-rational drives and impulses in human thought and behavior.

Sigmund Freud was born in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He was born into a Jewish family in 1856. As a child growing up, Freud wanted to attend medical school to become a neurologist. His object of study and his entire life's work was destined to be the exploration of man's unconscious mind. Freud believed that our conscious thoughts are determined by something hidden know as our unconscious impulses. Freud recognized the irrational as a potential danger. He believed irrationality was a "comprehensible object of science." Man was said not to be a rational being, guided by inner forces. Sigmund Freud's philosophy was that a man's actions are not always rational. And such an idea flew in the face of the ideals of the Enlightenment in no less a way than had Nietzsche's notion that "God is dead." Sigmund also concluded that people are not good by nature. Humans are people that's instincts provoke aggressiveness. Influenced by World War I and its aftermath, Freud broke away from the Enlightenment era and his philosophy that stated that man was inherently good. Along with Freud, many artist and writers followed as they rebelled against traditional artistic and literary ways. With this movement, it created what is now known as Modernism.

Freud also was a medical doctor that specialized in the treatment of nervous disorder also known as neuroses. His main focus was that of psychoanalysis. He was also the first person to map out the entire subconscious geography of the human psych. Through his studies, he concluded that disordered thinking was the result of fears experienced in childhood. These disorders can range from hysteria, anxiety, depression, and obsession. Through his studies, he argued that neurotic behaviors had to be treated by bringing childhood experiences to the surface and confront them.

With World War I at hand, the "breakdown of certainty" was at our front door. As we opened it, rationalism and reason exited. In August of 1914, the entire continent of Europe had outraged in war. This "man made" war included the Triple Entente; Great Britain, France, Russia and the United States who opposed the Triple Alliance; Germany, Ottoman Empire, and Austria-Hungary. All these countries, at odds with each other, fought to be the greatest nation in the world. The industrial revolution also came knocking. Many countries in the western world experienced the industrial revolution. This revolution brought many jobs, opportunities, as well as technology to feed a world war. Technology evened both sides of the war. With the upbringing of heavy artillery such as machine guns, poison gas, land mines, planes able to drop precise bombs, and submarines able to attack from under the water, lessened the hand-to-hand combat time. The war was said to be the Great War, the "war to end all wars." This war was far from