Birth of Modern Thought

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Coming of Modern Art Create notes on the following topics

Impressionism Post-Impressionism Cubism

Work on this Unit’s Art Analysis Assignment

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

• 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

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

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)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

New Directions in Feminism

• Revival of feminism• some groups wanted suffrage,

• some activists raised other questions • by 1900s, they had defined the key issues

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)

• 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