[just_a_quack]

I doubt the average peasant was into schelling or fichte. Göethe had and continues to influence literature, poetry, etc. But shifting culture to be more self-oriented? Please. The largest social impact he had was the surge in suicides by teens inspired by young Werther.

Individuality and self-centric-philosophy is a consequence of financial independence. And if you think capitalism is to blame in this case, please visit Asia where individualism is still mostly stuck in the pre-revolutionary era.

[nyolfen]

i doubt the average pre-reformation peasant was reading the bible, and yet..

[just_a_quack]

The Lutheran reformation was a political movement. And the spread of this movement was dependent on things like population density, economic potential and proximity to catholic institutions and influence. Conditions based on the above lead to adopting the heterodoxy. Not the other way around.

Contrary to this, what the article here is talking about is an intellectual exercise.

[nyolfen]

elite culture churns downward over a few generations. an intellectual exercise becomes a discourse, becomes a practice, becomes a culture