Birth of Modern Thought

1. Birth of Modern Thought

2. The New Reading Public • Literacy improved • Governments undertook state-financed education • Skills in reading writing, and arithmetic taught • Education • Necessary for orderly political behavior • More productive labor force • Right knowledge leads to right action-enlightenment faith

3. Reading Material • Literate population created new market for new reading material • Newspapers alerted new products through second Industrial Revolution • Books/journals creating material is mediocre • Poor writing for poor readers • Crime stories, political scandal, and advertising • Pornography popular • Political editorials influenced politics

4. Science at Mid Century • Science very strong in the universities in the mid 19th century • From mid-19th century- Science and Technology connected. • Government saw a purpose to support science as it would expand technology

5. Science- Auguste Comte • Model for all human knowledge • Comte argued human thought had 3 stages • Theoretical stage: Physical nature explained in terms of actions of spirits/divinities • Metaphysical State: Abstract principles regarded as operative agencies of nature. • Positive State: Explanation of nature becomes exact description of phenomena. • Believed laws of social behavior discovered in same way as laws of physical nature • Comte regarded as father of sociology • Religion of science that explain nature without resorting to supernaturalism • Populizers lectured on scientific topics: science answer to major questions of life

6. Darwin’s Theory • Organisms with advantages survive and live to increase population • survival of the fittest • Body parts developed mechanistically • Undermined Bible, deism, and fixity of nature • Physical and organic nature constantly changing • Made people believe society, values, customs, and beliefs should also change

7. Science and Ethics • Philosophers modeled ethics on science • Same concept to survival of human social relationships • Herbert Spencer • Human society progressed through competition • Avoid aiding poor • Advocate aggressive competition between nations • Social Darwinism- Evolutionary ethics: “Might makes right” • Thomas Henry Huxley • Defender of Darwin • Physical cosmic process of evolution at odds with process of human ethical development • Struggle held no ethical implications except to demonstrate how human being should not behave

8. Christianity and the Church under Siege • Difficult time for Christian churches • intellectuals left faith • Nation-states attacked influence • Population attacked organization • church still remained popular

9. Intellectual Skepticism • Intellectual attack challenged credibility, accuracy and morality • History • David Strauss - The Life of Jesus • claimed Jesus was a myth/ metaphor • scholars contended human authors had edited bible for problems and politics and Jews • Questioning caused the most people to lose faith

10. Science • Science undermined Christianity • in 18th century, science supported faith • Charles Lyell suggested earth older than biblical records and removed God’s hand from natural disasters • Darwin attacked the Creation • Anthropologists said religions sentiments are just one more set of natural phenomena

11. Morality • Immoral biblical stories • Differences between Old & New Testament • Friedrich Nietzsche showed Christianity glorified weakness • Secularism of everyday life proved as harmful as direct attacks • Whole generations in cities grew up w/o Christianity

12. Conflict Between Church and State • The secular state clashed with Protestant and Catholic churches • liberals disliked dogma/political privileges • primary area of conflict was education • religions education debated • Great Britain • Education Act of 1870 provided state-supported schools • all churches opposed improvements in education • Increased cost of church schools • Educational Act 1902, govt. supported religious and secular schools

13. France • Falloux Law of 1850 • local priest provided religious education • Third Republic & Cath Church loathed each other • Jules Ferry passed laws replacing religious instruction with civic training • After Dreyfus affair • pro-Dreyfus govt. of Pierre Waldeck • Rousseau suppressed religious orders • 1905, Napoleonic Concordat terminated and church and state were separated

14. Germany and the Kulturkampf • After unification, • Bismarck felt Roman Cath Church threatened unity • Removed clergy from education • “May Laws” of 1873 • Required priests to pass state exams • Abolished power of pope • Bismarck arrested and expelled most Cath bishops from Prussia • Bismarck’s Kulturkampf (cultural struggle) against Cath Church failed, was a great blunder for him

15. Areas of Religious Revival • All over Europe • Catholic churches were revived • Gave attention to urban poor • Final great effort to Christianize Europe • Well organized led and financed • failed only because population of Europe outstripped resources of churches

16. The Roman Church and the Modern World • Pope Pius IX issued the Syllabus of Errors • set Cath Church against science/philosophy/politics • 1869, First Vatican Council • Council introduced dogma of papal infallibility on faith/ morals • Spiritual authority became substitute for lost political/temporal authority • Pius succeeded by Leo XIII • pronounced Rerum Novarum(1891) • Defended private property/religious education • Condemned socialism/Marxism • supported laws to protect workers • wanted corporate society, not socialism/capitalism • Leo succeeded by Pius X • condemned Catholic modernism • required all priests to take anti-Modernist oath • struggle b/t Catholicism/modern thought resumed

17. Islam and Late-Nineteenth-Century European Thought • Islam seen as product of culture • seen as incapable of developing science/new ideas • Opposed by Jamal al-din Al-Afghani • Argued that Islam would eventually produce modern cultures • European racial/cultural outlooks directed toward Arab world, • championed white racial supremacy • reinforced by Christian missionaries, • founded schools/hospitals, didn’t convert many (penalty for abjuring Islam is death) • Within Islamic world • some thinkers (the Salafi) wanted to combine modern thought w/reformed Islam • led Muslims to oppose Western influence • some movements simply rejected Western thought

18. Toward a Twentieth-Century Frame of Mind • Philosophers, scientists, psychologist artists started showing reality human nature/society • challenged major presuppositions of mid-19th century thought

19. Science: The Revolution in Physics • Discontent present over realism of 19th century science • Ernst Mach • The Science of Mechanics: • urged to consider concepts descriptive of scientific observer as well as physical world • by WWI scientist saw themselves as recording observations of instruments and offering models of nature

20. X Rays and Radiation • Dec 1895 Wilhelm Roentgen published paper on X rays • 1896 Henri Becquerel discovered same w/uranium • J.J. Thompson imagined electrons • 1902 Rutherford explained cause of radiation

21. Theories of Quantum Energy Relativity, and Uncertainty • Max Planck theorized energy in packets 1900 • 1905 Albert Einstein published papers on time/space continuum • 1927, Heisenberg made uncertainty principle • scientists continued to get money from govt.s by relating discovery with economic and military

22. Literature: Realism and Naturalism • Morals went through changes • realist movement showed hypocrisy brutality and dullness in bourgeois life • used scientific objectivity/observation • Charles Dickens and Honore de Balzac showed cruel industrial life based on $ • George Eliot used detailed characters • all used artistry/imagination • major figures of late-century realism showed dreary/unseemly side of life

23. Flaubert and Zola • Gustave Flaubert’s Madame Bovary was 1st realistic novel • Emile Zola • believed absolute physical and psychological determinism ruled human events, • published lots of novels exploring taboo subjects • worldwide following

24. Ibsen and Shaw • Henrik Ibsen • Playwright • stripped away illusory mask of morality • Ibsen’s champion George Shaw • made own realistic onslaught against romanticism/respectability • Realist writers hoped to change moral perception • often left readers unable to sustain old values and uncertain where to find new ones

25. Modernism • Touched all arts, critical of middle-class society/morality • Concerned for aesthetic/beautiful • Walter Patter: said art tries to achieve condition of music • Modernists thought art should influence others, painters gave works musical titles, • musicians combined sources • Picasso used multiple angles; • Some rejected traditional forms entirely • Bloomsbury Group: chief proponents of modernism • English • Keynesian economics challenged much of 19th economic structure

26. On Continent • Marcel Proust used stream-of-consciousness format • Thomas Mann explored social experiences • James Joyce transformed structure of the paragraph • Modernism arose before and flourished after WWI afterwards • readers less shocked

27. The Coming of Modern Art • Create notes on the following topics • Impressionism • Post-Impressionism • Cubism • Work on this Unit’s Art Analysis Assignment

28. Friedrich Nietzsche and the Revolt Against Reason • Friedrich Nietzsche • began to question adequacy of rational thinking to address human situation • remained unpopular in life • wanted to tear away mask of respectable life and question how humans made those masks • The Birth of Tragedy • urged non rational aspects of human nature as important as rational ones • Thus Spake Zarathustra • criticized democracy/Christianity • Uebermensch • announced death of God, coming of Overman who would embody heroism/greatness

29. Nietzsche critical of racism, anti-Semitism • Return to Homeric age • thought Christian values/bourgeois morality prevented humankind from achieving life on heroic level • Beyond Good and Evil and The Genealogy of Morals • sought to discover social and psychological sources of judgment of right/wrong • thought that we need “a critique of moral values” but values must 1st be valued • morality a human convention without no independent existence • Discovery allowed humans to create life-affirming values and new moral order that glorified pride not meekness • Appealed to feelings for questioning of rationalism • humans had to forge from their own will and determination the values that would exist in the world

30. The Birth of Psychoanalysis • Development of Freud’s Early Theories • Sigmund Freud • Austrian Jew • Allowed patients to talk freely • Noticed neurotic symptoms resulted from childhood (sexual) incidents • rejected this view 1897 • Infantile Sexuality • thought sexual drives exist in infants • obliterated childhood innocence

31. Freud’s Concern with Dreams: • Thought dreams must have rational explanation • concluded dreams let loose unconscious wishes and drives • unconscious drives contribute to conscious behavior • Related to infantile sexuality in The Interpretation of Dreams(1900)

32. Freud’s Later Thought • Developed new model of mind as struggle between 3 entities: • id: amoral/irrational instincts for pleasure • superego: moral imperatives from society • ego: mediator, allows personality to cope w/demands • Freud reflected romanticism and Enlightenment • hostile to religion • wanted humane behavior • Thought survival required suppression of sexuality and aggression

33. Divisions in the Psychoanalytic Movement • Freud’s disciples • Carl Jung: Swiss student and parted ways • Jung doubted primacy of sexual drives in personality • Put less faith in reason • Thought humans had collective memory • Modern Man in Search of a Soul • Jung moved toward mysticism/religion/romanticism • By 1920s, Psychoanalytic movement even more fragmented • influenced sociology anthropology religion literature

34. Retreat from Rationalism in Politics • Liberals/socialists agreed rational analysis could discern problems/locate solutions • by 1900, views came under attack, racial theorists questioned them • Max Weber • German sociologist • Thought rationalism was major development of human history • Bureaucratization was basic feature of social life • noneconomic factors accounted for major developments • contrasted Marx

35. Theorists of Collective Behavior • Social scientist: • Lebon explored crowds/mobs, • Sorel argued people led to goals by shared ideals • Durkheim/Wallas thought shared ideals bind humans together

36. Racism • Since 18th century • biologists classified humans by skin color/civilization/ language • Postulated existence of ancient race called Aryans that spoke ancestor language • Debate over slavery developed racism • Association with biological science gave it prestige

37. Count Arthur de Gobineau • French reactionary • Thought white Aryans unwisely intermarried/diluted greatness in their blood • Racial thinkers applied Darwin’s survival of the fittest to races and nations

38. Chamberlain • Englishman • Drew together strands of racial thought • Believed superior race could be developed • Anti-Semitic, thought Jew was major enemy of racial regeneration; • writings of Paul de Lagarde and Julius Langbehn blamed Jews

39. Late-Century Nationalism • From 1870s onward • nationalism became movement w/mass support/parties • nation replaced religion for secular people • used racial theory to support harsh treatment of colonial peoples • thought whites were best

40. Anti-Semitism & the Birth of Zionism • Religious anti-Semitism old as Middle Ages • during last 3rd of century • As finance capitalism changed economics • Europeans pressured to hate Jews • Anti-Semitic Politics • racial thought • Jews could never assimilate, • Jews responded w/Zionist movement to form separate Jewish state • Herzl’s Response • Theodor Herzl called for separate Jewish state • directed call to poor Jews in the ghettos

41. Women and Modern Thought • Ideas that shook Europe produced mixed results for women • Antifeminism in Late-Century Thought • Influence of biology sustained stereotyped views of women • emphasized mothering role • Culture showed them susceptible to overwhelming and destructive instincts • Attack on religion actually reinforced stereotypes, • Darwin a sexist • Freud thought them incomplete • Early sociologists took conservative view of marriage/family/child rearing/divorce

42. New Directions in Feminism • Revival of feminism • some groups wanted suffrage, • some activists raised other questions • by 1900s, they had defined the key issues

43. Sexual Morality and the Family: • Middle-class women challenged double standard of sexual morality (prostitution) and male-dominated family • 1864-86, English prostitutes subject to Contagious Diseases Acts • police could examine prostitute/confine to locked hospital w/o legal recourse • purpose to protect men • Laws angered middle-class women • Laws assumed women were inferior to men • Denied women freedom of their own body • the Ladies’ National Association for the Repeal of the Contagious Diseases Acts (led by Josephine Butler) achieved suspension in 1883 and repealed in 1886 • other nations adopted English model of regulation and opposition (General Austrian Women’s Association)

44. Feminist groups began to demand equality in marriage • Germany • Mother’s Protection League contended mother’s required help of the state • Sweden • Ellen Key said govt., rather than husbands, should support mothers