Kim: In northern Europe during the eighteenth century a change of attitude occurred that found expression both in the adoption of less solemn and elaborate death rites by the population at large and in a more optimistic view of the human condition as articulated by philosophers  This change can be explained as the result of a dramatic increase in life expectancy that occurred in northern Europe early in the eighteenth century
Lee: Your explanation seems unlikely, because it could not be correct unless the people of the time were aware that their life expectancy had increased
Philosophers in northern Europe during the eighteenth century made many conjectures that did not affect the ideas of the population at large.