Enlightenment Ideas Challenged the Philosophers Term Paper

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.. The pre-Aryan inhabitants of the Italian soil, whose complexion formed the clearest feature of distinction from the dominant blondes, namely, the Aryan conquering race:... good, noble, clean, but originally the blonde-haired man in contrast to the dark black-haired aboriginals" ("Nietzsche on Race and Sex." WVC Philosophy Home Page, 2004). Superiority and the idea that some laws apply to only some people were taken to the extreme in the mind of Adolf Hitler and his attempt to build a super race, and a nation where Aryans were encouraged to 'breed' and other racial groups were annihilated. Nietzsche wished to create a world without rules, so everyone could exercise his or her maximum potential, but he believed some races had greater tendencies to embody the qualities of the superman and were more capable of living freely and creatively.

Most of the philosophers believed that human nature can be improved? Why was Sigmund Freud pessimistic about that possibility?

Sigmund Freud believed that human psychology was wired so that human beings would inevitably exist in a state of conflict between their innate desires and social rules for behavior. When human beings were born, they were all id, or devoted to the pleasure principle. To satisfy the needs of the id, the ego is eventually able to articulate what it wants and to delay gratification, and the superego imposes limits upon the schemes of the id, according to societal dictates ("Structure of Mind," 2004).

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Freud saw the ego/id/superego division as hardwired into the human psyche, and not something that could be eliminated or improved upon by either culture or force of will. Also, because of the nature of the human psyche's location in culture, it would never be possible for a child to have 'everything' it wants (like to marry the child's mother and take the role of the father within a family) and human beings, as desiring and unsatisfied creatures, would always have different id-driven desires that came into conflict. Some people have stronger superegos than others, too, and would feel more conflicted between the impulses of their id and what society told them was correct ("Structure of Mind," 2004).

Another problem in regards to changing the human character is that so many of our real impulses are hidden from our conscious mind, according to Freud. We may think that we want to get married to someone, for example, and that will improve our happiness but the id will be in conflict with the superego, if the id would rather marry someone who is less suitable. The superego can overcome the ego and the id, but repression can cause psychological conflict, and often does not result in true human happiness, only a surface appearance of happiness and obedience. Humans have not been improved upon; their conscious mind is merely imposing itself upon their unconscious desires.

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