Quote:Platypus
The promises of the age
> of reason, to the extent that people hoped too
> much from them (and many did) led to a backlash of
> nihilism and postmodernism.
This implies something significant, I think...
When reason replaced God in the age of enlightenment, all that really happened was that the enlightened thinkers of the era switched out "God" and swapped in "(mankind's) Reason". They replaced God with their ideal selves. We didn't need any pronouncements from a deity, we could figure *all* of it our, ourselves. Therefore, anything was possible. Mankind was limitless in its potential attainments.
Like anything new, it had a period of energy and excited speculation, but after a while people of all sorts recognized that all was not indeed possible, as it had been when there was still a God, who, if you believed, could do *anything*. In fact, the further along the road to rationalism, as it is influenced by scientific discovery, the more insignificant mankind becomes.
Now, roll in a couple of world wars, which due to the numbers of participants involved, and the increased ability to report the events to the broad public, and you have the rise of nihilism and post-modernism.
Which appears to me to be right where we are now.
HPL as a front edge post-modernist...
--Sawfish
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"The food at the new restaurant is awful, but at least the portions are large."
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