Analysis of Human Cultural Identity as seen in five cultural periods. Enlightenment Culture; Greco-Roman Culture; Judeo-Christian Culture; Renaissance-Reformation Culture; and Industrialization-Mo

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This paper is intended to contain the analysis of the human cultural identity, as seen in

the following five historical cultural periods: Enlightenment Culture; Greco-Roman

Culture; Judeo-Christian Culture; Renaissance-Reformation Culture; and

Industrialization-Modernism Culture. It also embodies examples of each era that are

clearly stated, and how they relate to the cultural period.

The cultural identity of the Enlightenment can be described as emphasizing the

possibilities of human reason. This idea can be illustrated with such examples as Thomas

Jefferson, Denis Diderot, and Protestantism. Thomas Jefferson was considered among

one of the most brilliant American exponents of the Enlightenment culture. He had the

time and the resources to educate himself in many topics including history, literature,

law, architecture, science, and philosophy. He had the motivation and the connections to

apply Enlightenment political philosophy to nation-building. Denis Diderot was a French

encyclopedist and philosopher, who also composed plays, novels, essays, and art.

He

greatly influenced other Enlightenment thinkers with his translations of Encyclopedie ou

dictionnaire raisonne des sciences, des arts et des metiers, usually known as

Encyclopedie. He used this translation as a powerful propaganda weapon against

Ecclesiastical authority, and the semifeudal social reforms of the time. Protestantism is a

good example also. It is one of the three major divisions of Christianity. It displays the

release of traditional religion and the movement to worldly learning and the rise of

protests against the controlled way of expressing one's self. It allows the human himself

to reason out the way that he thinks, instead of an authority telling him how to do so

therefore, extending his mind.

The Industrialism-Modernism culture is a culture that represents social, economical,

and scientific advancement, as well as self-doubt, uncertainty, and alienation. These

traits can be characterized with such examples as Werner Heisenberg, Epicureanism, and

Eli Whitney...