9/14 Questions

• The relation to the Reformation and the Thirty Years War was that the reformation started the unease that led to the war. When anti-remormers began to take power in 1618, the Thirty Years War began.
• Individuals like Martin Luther helped lead the way to the Enlightenment because they waere brave enough to question the church, the people who held the most authority and power in the entire Holy Roman Empire, committing acts never really seen before. It sort of started a "monkey see monkey do" attitude, which led to people learning for themselves and trying to make themselves better and smarter.
• Kant explains enlightenment as "man's emergence from his self-incurred immaturity" in the very first sentence he writes. He then continues to describe enlightenment as, in much simpler terms, to use the brain you have and the knowledge you've gained.
• Personally, I think he means that he lived in an age where we were presented with the choice to be enlightened men and women.  Kant seemed to believe that people willingly remained ignorant or blissfully unaware of their own immaturity. He states that Mankind has not yet reached the stage where enlightenment can be reached without outside help - so basically he thinks we have to force people to do their own thing.
• He thinks tolerance is arrogant, and that one person does not have complete say on what is right and what is wrong.
• The parable of the ring reflects a lot of the enlightenment because it presented characters who were thinking on their own and debating rather than just doing what they were told.
• The crusades were happening, so it was only natural to have the Ring parable set there.
• Each of the rings represents one of the three big monotheistic religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. It takes place in Jerusalem because Jerusalem is a massively important city and sort of the center of all three of those monotheistic religions.