Weber’s analyses give us a good insight into why and how modern thinking justified the lowering of aspirations. A minimalistic view of human nature, initially apparent first and foremost in Protestantism but later on expanding to other areas of the Western world, had a specific nature. The basic cause of the change was purely religious: a new doctrine of predestination as well as a fundamental weight attributed to the original sin precluded any form of moral and spiritual perfectibility. Big plans for man were no longer feasible. But at the same time, the low level to which human aspirations
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