Existentialism Enlightenment

            A comparison from a 20th century (existentialist) perspective.
             "The time frame from 1776 through the start of the 20th century was period of evolution for the West in determining what we believed and how we would govern ourselves. The time period proceeding this revolutionary period is known as the Enlightenment." (Hooker) A time where the philosophers of Greece where remembered, brought back to "life" by Islam. Western Europeans rediscovered Aristotelian and Platonic philosophy, theoretical origin of empirical thought. With this old "new" way of thinking came huge changes in how people viewed the world around them. Having become more analytical they began to even view God differently. They micro-analyzed every aspect of their lives and made a "holy" connection. This world, the medieval world, did not allow for individualism or "free will". .
             By comparison it is easy to see how we (in the 21st century) take for granted our freedoms. In the medieval world human perception was untrustworthy, one had to live by the will of what the "church" dictated was the "sort of life that would get you into heaven." There was no thought on "fairness" or "equality". To speak out on these topics would show that you were not thinking according to the "divine plan" and that could bring about a most horrible and untimely death. It was not until the 14th century that the idea of humanism came about and brought with it the perception that human intellect and creativity were something value. However, one was still scrutinized by the church. In our "free" world we've got a lot of liberties and freedoms that were not even considered in this time period. Take for example how racial equality evolved from a tired black woman not giving up her seat on a bus on a hot summer afternoon in Southern America. Had she done that in the period of so called "Enlightenment" she"d have been killed for sure. Fairness was not a consideration of the time period either.