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printing-press-reformation

The invention of the printing press and the Protestant Reformation empowered individual inquiry and fragmented centralized religious and intellectual authority.

1 chapter across 1 book

The Age of AI: And Our Human Future (2021)Henry A. Kissinger, Eric Schmidt, Daniel Huttenlocher

Chapter 2

Chapter 2 traces the historical evolution of human understanding of reality, highlighting how societies have reconciled reason and faith to explain their environments. It outlines key epochs—from the classical Greek and Roman emphasis on reason, through medieval theological dominance, to the transformative impact of the printing press and the Protestant Reformation—showing how these shifts redefined the role of individual human cognition and inquiry. The chapter situates the emergence of AI as a new epochal challenge to existing concepts of reality and human knowledge.