the arts and in human thought. Western society had began to question and abandon many

cherished values and beliefs that had guided it since the 18th century Enlightenment and

the 19th century developments in industry, scientific advances, and evolutionary thought.

These developments also encouraged the belief in the logical universe of Newtonian

physics as well as faith in the ability of a rational human mind to understand that universe

through intellectual investigation. There were also laws of society that rational human

beings could discover and then wisely act on, which helped the rights of the individual to

increase.. Soon before World War I, most Europeans had a moderately optimistic view of

However, since the 1880’s, some thinkers and creative writers began to question

these modern ideas. They rejected the general faith in progress and the power of the

rational human mind. More thinkers shared this idea after the experience of the war,

which shown that humans could be violent, irrational animals that are capable of tearing

the individual and his or her rights. Thinkers like

Some topics in this essay:
Christianity Sometimes, Friedrich Nietzsche, , Max Planck, Breuer Freud, Georges Sorel, War Europeans, Thinkers Valery, Bergson French, Marie Curie, human mind, rational human, 19th century, rational human mind, rational scientific, view world, world war, sigmund freud,