With the Enlightenment came the enthronement of the new deity, that of Nature, together with the legitimation of science as its only orthodox cult, and of scientists as its prophets and priests. Everything, in principle, had been opened to objective inquiry; everything could, in principle, be known – reliably and true.
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In the form in which it was moulded by the Enlightenment, scientific activity was marked by an ‘attempt to determine man’s exact place in nature through observation, measurements, and comparisons between groups of men and animals’ and ‘belief in the unity of body and mind.’ The latter was supposed to express itself in a tangible, physical way, which could be measured and observed. Phrenology (the art of reading the character from facial features) captured most fully the confidence, strategy and ambition of the new scientific age.

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From the Enlightenment on, the modern world was distinguished by its activist, engineering attitude toward nature and toward itself. Science was not to be conducted for its own sake; it was seen as, first and foremost, an instrument of awesome power allowing its holder to improve on reality, to re-shape it according to human plans and designs, and to assist it in its drive to self-perfection. Gardening and medicine supplied the archetypes of [this] constructive stance, while normality, health, or sanitation offered the archmetaphors for human tasks and strategies in the management of human affairs.

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From the point of view of those who designed and commanded the mass murder of the Jews, Jews were to die not because they were resented (or at least not primarily for this reason); they were seen as deserving death (and resented for that reason) because they stood between this one imperfect and tension-ridden reality and the hoped-for world of tranquil happiness.