Introduction
Philosophers and thinkers formulate not only urgent problems for society but also look for their causes and solutions. Intellectuals in the Long Nineteenth century criticized aspects of their time’s political and social order and discussed natural human needs. Figures such as Edmund Burke, William Blake, Leo Tolstoy, Sigmund Freud, and entire literary movements have described similar problems, but with different accents. Thus, the ideas of the Long Nineteenth century laid the foundation for the democratic and liberal views of modern European society. They criticized the tendency to artificially create structures based on metaphysical reasoning as opposed to the real needs of people.
Edmund Burke
Edmund Burke supported the independence of America and Ireland and also discussed other equally important world political agendas of the time. Anglo-Irish philosopher and political thinker advocated “both liberty and tradition” (Primary Source 10.5, 1). Thus, in his “Reflections on the Revolution in France” (1790), he argued the importance of reforming, not revolutionizing. The thinker supported conservatism and the use of existing order and its adaptation to meet changing social needs. The author emphasized the need to “temper together these opposite elements of liberty and restraint in one consistent work” (Primary Source 10.5, 7). Burke also criticized the French revolutionaries’ actions to radically advance the power and destroy the existing order to establish a new one (Primary Source 10.5, 1). He emphasized the need to create institutions for solving specific problems with the involvement of particular people’s experience and not the foundation of the state on abstract metaphysical ideas. Thus, the intellectual became the founder of the ideas of conservatism in European society, rejecting the cruelty and violent methods of introducing radical political changes in pursuing artificial goals.
William Blake’s London
William Blake’s poem London (1794) discusses the problems of contemporary industrial society from both a political and social perspective. The poet was heavily influenced by both the French and American Revolutions, in which he saw trends towards the suppression of ordinary people and the dominance of industrial government (London Poem Analysis). The author appeals to the impossibility of the innocence of a person who from birth plunges into the atmosphere of cruelty and greed, which creates “the mind-forged manacles” (London Poem Analysis). In his work, Blake pointed out the decline of the spiritual and intellectual life of modern society, suppressed by base instincts and aggression. The poem criticizes the modern order promoting “the existence of corrupted society dominated by the power of materialism” (London Poem Analysis). Blake warns that such a society cannot bring happiness to its inhabitants, only suffering and pain. Thus, similarly to Burke, he emphasizes the impossibility of building a system through artificial ideology and values, only based on satisfying natural psychological, and spiritual human needs.
Storm and Stress
Not only individual thinkers and writers expressed their thoughts concerning the decline of modern society, but also entire literary groups. One of them was “Storm and stress,” which was “a proto-Romantic German literary movement of the late 18th century” (Cristina Motta). Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Friedrich Schiller were prominent representatives of the movement who rebelled against the ideas of rationalism and beauty of neoclassicism (Cristina Motta). The supporters’ main arguments were the subjective expression of feelings and extreme emotionality, the tendency to suppress, which arose in the 18th century. Thus, the movement advocated the rejection of the regulation and limitation of the spiritual and emotional life of a person, and its artistic expression in particular. If Burke and Blake criticized artificial political structures constraining public life and suppressing the personality and needs of ordinary people, then German literary figures felt the need for an artistic protest. Thus, the movement advocated the emphasis on the inner world of a person and individuality as the main component, suggesting the democratization of public life and its construction based on society’s needs.
Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace
Russian writer and thinker Lev Tolstoy also discussed human nature and his right to free will and expression. One of the themes of his monumental novel War and Peace (1867) is determinism, which he examines in terms of “intrinsic influence quality of man’s free and independent will” (Free Will vs. Determinism). Thus, Tolstoy argues that a person can control events and the course of history through the reflection of inner aspirations, while rationalism and artificial control of life through the intellect is doomed to failure (Free Will vs. Determinism). Using the mind, a person can observe the needs which belong to his or her nature. Together with other thinkers, Tolstoy defined internal human needs as the basis for building the order of life. Determinism and fate for him were the products of human nature, which dictates the structure of society. Therefore, it is necessary to use natural needs and respond to them instead of suppressing them.
Sigmund Freud’s Civilization and its Discontents
The events of the First World War strongly influenced Sigmund Freud, causing him to think about human nature and how his innate inclinations are reflected in the world order. The philosopher, based on his earlier ideas in the work Civilization and Its Discontent (1930), argues that human aggressiveness makes it “hard for him to be happy in that civilization” (Chapter 10 Modern Consciousness, 263). Thus, Freud discusses the idea that the progress of humanity towards creation and goodness is impossible since civilization is continuously forced to restrain man’s desire for destruction and cruelty (Chapter 10 Modern Consciousness, 263). Through reflecting on religion as an artificial formation and the structure of human families and society as a whole as a natural basis, the philosopher discusses the sources of progress. It relies on the idea of a human desire for individualism and selfishness, which coexist with the desire for the group and social belonging. Thus, through reasoning about religion as an artificial sense of belonging, Freud considers the existence of political systems built on the idea of collectivism as unnatural and forcing people to contradict nature.
Philosophical Ideas and Crisis of Man
Upon further reflection, all the ideas presented in one way or another reflect the suppression of a person’s natural needs by the existing order, in particular psychological and spiritual. Aggressiveness, cruelty, and despotism come from the excessive desire of a human “to reason and control” (Free Will vs. Determinism). However, as Burke advocated, it is necessary to maintain free will; political and social structures must serve a person’s needs, not control them (Primary Source 10.5). Moreover, Blake and German writers emphasized human nature’s oppression by rationalism and industrialism, which create conditions for ideas, but not for people. Freud contrasted artificial structures with natural ones, noting that modern political structures do not consider human nature as the main aspect (Chapter 10 Modern Consciousness). Thus, through the literature and art of the Long Nineteenth Century, one can note the importance for people to satisfy and express their natural needs, fatigue from ideological values promoted by the political and social order.
Art and culture, in particular literature, of the Long Nineteenth century, illustrate the crisis of humanity with which thinkers are concerned. Through their works, they strive to convince society to realize the wrongness of tendencies, which are destructive for human nature. The philosophical ideas expressed by the intellectuals of the period reflect the irreversibility of future changes. Tolstoy believes that events occur based on the needs of people and according to their will (Free Will vs. Determinism). Therefore, the order criticized by philosophers is also a natural consequence of the development of humanity, whose needs change from natural to ideological on a global scale.
Conclusion
Culture and art are a reflection of the intellectual and spiritual life of society. Ideas prevailing at a particular time accurately illustrate both political and social issues which concern people. Thinkers of the Long Nineteenth century describe the artificiality of ideological structures, which are not built on a human’s needs but are based on the metaphysical views of specific individuals. Such an approach to the world order suppresses most people, oppressing their psychological and spiritual state. As in the 18th-19th centuries, absorbed by industrialism, the modern capitalist world is experiencing the same difficulties, imposing values on a person which will not satisfy natural needs. Nevertheless, the ideas of the Long Nineteenth century laid the democratic and liberal foundation for a modern European community, which places more emphasis on the spiritual and psychological desires of the people.
References
Burke, E. (2020). Reflections on the Revolution in France. Independently published.
London Poem Summary and Analysis. (n.d.). LitCharts. Web.
McLeod, S. (2019). Freewill vs Determinism. SimplyPsychology. Web.
Motta, C. (n.d.). Romanticism: Sturm und Drang. USEUM. Web.
Poetry Foundation. (n.d.). London by William Blake. Web.
Christianity: Culture-Maker Beyond Specific Timeframes
Introduction
The notion of a successful state or historical period is always revolving around a variety of related factors that somehow contribute to their development and establishment whatsoever. One of the central concepts considered as inseparable with the emergence of a nation or era is the phenomenon of culture and its stages of development within the given timeframe. In fact, no period in the context of the diachronic world evolution might be described without any mention of cultural influence on its formation. However, when it comes to culture itself, its constituents are characterized as something that exists beyond any timeline, creating a separate transcendent semantic universe. Despite the centuries of this notion’s existence in society, there is still no opportunity to define the word culture in a universally accepted manner, claiming the lexeme to bear definitions peculiar to each individual (Wallner). However, regardless of the lexical component of the concept of culture, religion has always been an integral part of it, claiming the genesis of some most powerful nations in world history.
Besides being a full-scale pillar of culture formation, religion serves as one of the most influential contributors to a specific culture emergence in the first place. The vast majority of individuals acquainted with the notion of sociology considers that nation and historical period as concepts could not be considered as such without explicit cultural intervention in the process. In its turn, religion, being one of the formation fundamentals, shapes people’s relations within the nation, making them united for a specific reason. For this reason, the following thesis is aimed at researching the reasons standing behind the emergence of such religion as Christianity and its ability to exist beyond any formal perceptions. Specifically speaking, the attention will be paid to the peculiarities of Christianity development within the context of Western thought and its transformation from the Roman Empire to the Middle Ages.
The Emergence and Influence of Christianity
Being the largest religion in the world for more than two thousand years, Christianity has lived through a variety of historical eras and a series of severe socio-economic changes that eventually led to significant modifications in the context of religious perception. As a result of the many changes that appeared in the course of world history, the factual timeline of historical events is generally examined apart from the so-called “divine” timeline. The major argument for such a decision is primarily concerned with the idea that these aspects are to be looked into from various scientific branches, which, when overlapped, night confuse the general outcome of a historical event (Schaff). As a result, the act of neglecting divine history in the context of events that took place in terms of a certain timeframe has led to some major misconceptions in the field of nation-shaping factors and world peace establishment as a whole.
One of the most vivid examples of religious influence on historical events and the lifetime of a nation is the relationship between Christianity and the Roman Empire. Thus, founded in 27 BC by Augustus Caesar, the Roman Empire overcame a series of severe social challenges throughout its existence. Moreover, the life cycle of the Roman Empire is an example of how the nation-shaping and governmental aspects of a state deal with the rapid development of society and its major values. Since the very emergence of the empire, state leaders realized that their fellow citizens needed a specific factor that would unite them besides plain geographical distribution. At first, this aspect was justified by some basic human instincts, including the desire to survive and find basic resources for human existence. Such a position was then winning for the government, as they needed their residents to take an active part in the military actions related to the preservations of the country’s sovereignty.
However, with the time passing, the people’s expectations from the government and its social politics changed significantly due to their cognitive development and emergence of some basic moral values. At the time, the early genesis of Christianity was commenced in the region in Judea, professing the belief in Jesus Christ and its sacrifice to help humankind find the true meaning of life and existence on Earth. At first, like every new wind blowing among state residents, Christianity was not welcomed by the state leaders, as in the fair of being faced with uncertainty, they persecuted individuals who were not likely everyone else in the empire. A few years later, however, the Roman Empire’s state legislature came to realize that a common religion was the key to consolidate the nation in order to secure its thriving and integrity, as well as to reinforce the state’s influence on the world stage. As a result, the fundamentals of Christianity were embraced by the Roman Empire, making it one of the central social aspects in terms of its development.
On the one hand, embracing Christianity became a salvation for fellow residents as the ideas promoted by it concerned the establishment of proper moral values and basics of then education and overall cognitive development of an individual. It was Christianity that established the genesis of public education, and the very first educational facilities were encouraged by the Church’s promotion, as they were positive about using the facilities to start schools and seminaries for fellow residents with no significant financial income or social status. As a result, the people of the Roman Empire developed a strong bond with the Christian beliefs and values, following its canons in the hope of a brighter future.
On the other hand, however, the Roman Empire, especially the Western part of the state with the capital in Constantinople, perceived the emergence of Christianity as a national faith as a significant tool in terms of the state ruling and order establishment within the nation (González). Thus, people’s close affiliation to the Christian church was beneficial for the state in terms of socio-economic development and preserving the territorial integrity of the Roman Empire. Contributing many resources to the enhancement of the Church’s influence in the area, state leaders eventually lost track of the actual influence religion had on people, gradually shifting away from being a plain consolidation tool. As a result, with the Roman Empire’s strategic failure and subsequent dissolvement, Christianity’s power among the population remained unchanged, proving the religion’s transcendent existence beyond time and historical precedents.
Christianity and Middle Ages Shift
The fall of the Western Roman Empire eventually led to some major modifications in terms of the new territories’ autonomy and predominating values among their residents. However, the one thing that was in common for all the newly formed states was the desire to achieve the former eEmpire’sscope of sociocultural development and achievements in the spheres of science and military (González). As Christianity had already become an integral part of that development at the time, it became obvious that the barbarian people would embrace a certain religious form in order to secure further development.
In the following context, Christianity seemed to be, by all means, the best possible option due to its relative open-mindedness. Moreover, the very form and shape of the Christian belief could be adjusted to the sociohistorical development of its devotees. As a result, Christianity in the Middle Ages was marked by its splitting into a variety of branches with four leading religious dimensions. Moreover, the established universal model of Christianity managed to gain a major advantage over the legislative aspects by providing people from all over the world with the opportunity to be united when deprived of home and specific national affiliation (Gomes). Thus, being able to make even more people advocate for the belief in Jesus Christ, the religion claimed itself to be even more independent from the sociopolitical prerequisites of certain nations, become a culture maker instead.
Conclusion
When considering such sophisticated and multilayer aspects as religion and its role within the nation-shaping process, it should be outlined that there are no specific answers to the following question due to the scope of information and human diversity. Thus, while the role of Christianity within the culture-making aspect during the Middle Ages, its ability to leverage Western identity, and outlive the Roman Empire might be explained from the sociological perspective, the explanation itself will never be exhaustive. In terms of the following paper, an attempt was made to take a closer look at the peculiarities of Christianity development through its major historical eras of the Roman Empire and the Middle Ages. As a result, it was estimated that the primary asset of the following religion was its transcendence in terms of ethics, national, or any affiliation whatsoever.
Works Cited
Gomes, Catherine. “Christianity: A Culture of Transnational Mobility.” Transient Mobility and Middle Class Identity, Palgrave Macmillan, 2017, pp.185-208.
González, Justo L. The Story of Christianity, Volume 1. HarperCollins, 2014.
Schaff, Philip. The History of the Christian Church: Vol. 1-8: The Account of the Christianity from the Apostles to the Reformation. e-artnow, 2019.
Wallner, Jozef, editor. Capacity and Resources for Sustainable Development: The Role of Economics, Business, Management and Related Disciplines, 17-19 April 2018, Bratislava, Slovak Republic. The University of Economics in Bratislava: Vydavateľstvo EKONÓM, 2018.
The Smallpox Epidemic Of 1777-1782
The smallpox epidemic of 1777-1782 was devastating and deadly for many people in North America in the late eighteenth century. British troops were immune to the disease, which gave them an advantage during the Revolution. Elizabeth Fenn, in her book “Pox Americana”, says, “smallpox may have been the gun’s most lethal legacy” (Fenn). Military camps, being densely populated areas, were a hotbed for the spread of viral diseases. The moving of armies across the continent lead to the infection of residents, who were not immune to the disease, either. Thus, despite attempts at quarantine measures and vaccinations, military action was the reason for the spread of smallpox in North America.
The outbreak of the smallpox epidemic in 1775 took place in the city of Boston, besieged by British troops. Fenn explains that while the European military was mostly immune to smallpox, Americans were more vulnerable to the disease. The cause is that the inhabitants of Europe in the eighteenth century were constantly faced with outbreaks of smallpox, as a result of which most of the population acquired immunity to the infection after recovering. Colonists of North America, unlike British soldiers, rarely encountered smallpox outbreaks on their continent. In addition, they mainly lived in rural areas, which suggested a low population density and, as a result, a small possibility of the virus spreading. Thus, Boston, due to its high population density, became a hotbed of smallpox. In addition, the military camps of the Continental Army located near the city also posed a danger for the spread of the disease. Fenn also notes the existence of credible evidence that the British sent infected individuals from the city to infect American soldiers. Thus, smallpox began to spread throughout the continent through military units.
Despite the disease containment measures taken by George Washington, smallpox soon spread to other areas on the continent. In 1776, the Continental Army troops sieged Quebec; however, it was not possible to take it because of smallpox. After the end of the Canadian campaign, American soldiers began returning home to various states spreading the virus. George Washington’s vaccinations and quarantine measures were so effective that by 1778 there was a short delay in the epidemic. However, in the conditions of military camps, especially retreats, it is challenging to maintain appropriate measures, which led to a spread in the north in the case of the Canadian campaign.
While vaccinations made the Continental Army much less vulnerable to smallpox, other inhabitants of the continent still were not immune. With the advance of the troops southward, the disease spread, affecting local residents and indigenous peoples. At the same time, in the south, African Americans sought to free themselves from colonial rule, which forced them to join the British army. As already noted, unlike the European soldiers, they were not immune to smallpox, which led to a new outbreak of the epidemic. Fenn also emphasizes that the British probably sent infected African Americans back to their masters as biological weapons. Thus, smallpox represented an obstacle to the Continental army at all stages of the Revolution, forcing the command to take measures to contain its spread and also incur additional losses. At the same time, the British could use it to their advantage as a biological weapon. With troops’ movement across the continent, an epidemic spread, affecting not only soldiers but also local residents.
Work Cited
Fenn, Elizabeth. Pox Americana: The Great Smallpox Epidemic of 1775-82. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2002.