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Chapter 27: Age of Anxiety1900-1940
Hopelessness after World Hopelessness after World War IWar I
End to old order Communist totalitarianism and fascism Great Depression
“Age of Anxiety”
New world in the aftermath of WWI Blow to Western civilization No control Continual crisis
Modern PhilosophyModern Philosophy
After the war, new and upsetting ideas began to spread throughout the entire population.
Before 1914 most people believed in Enlightenment ideas of progress, reason and the rights of individuals.
Optimistic pre-World War I view was the result of significant progress of the past two centuries
CriticsCritics
Critics of the pre-war world anticipated many of the post-war ideas.
They rejected the general faith in progress and the power of the rational human mind.
Friedrich NietzscheFriedrich Nietzsche
– 1844-1900– Untimely Meditations (1873)– “Thus Spake Zarathustra”
God is dead
– “Will to Power” Ubermenschen (german for” superman”)
– Argued: ever since Athens, the West had overemphasized rationality and stifled the authentic passions and animal instincts that drive human activity and true creativity.
Will to Power God is Dead Immorality Ubermensch (Hitler used this term to
describe the Nazi idea of a biologically superior Aryan, master race)
Philosophy
Henri BergsonHenri Bergson
– 1859-1941– Immediate experience
and intuition were as important as rational and scientific thinking
Georges SorelGeorges Sorel
1847-1922 Syndicalism- a
manifestation of anarchism
Socialism Foreshadowed the
Bolshevik Revolution/
Ludwig WittgensteinLudwig Wittgenstein
1889-1951 Logical Positivism
(empiricism)— what we know about human life must be based on rational facts and direct observation
Theology=useless Essay on Logical Philosophy
– Focus on language/
Existentialism
Took root in Continental countries after WWI Emphasized the loneliness and meaningless of
human existence and the individuals need to come to terms with this situation
Saw life as absurd, no inherent meaning Most existentialists were Atheists Shattering of beliefs in God, reason, and progress/
Jean-Paul SartreJean-Paul Sartre
1905-1980 French existentialist “existence precedes
essence”-no God-given timeless truths outside of individual existence
Define self through actions
Attracted to communism/
The Revival of Christianity
As a response to these unsettling revolutionary ideas ordinary people turned to Christianity
Christian existentialists- stressed human beings’ sinful nature, the need for faith, and the mystery of God’s forgiveness/
Soren KierkegaardSoren Kierkegaard
1813-1855 Rediscovery of his work
after WWI Argued: impossible for
ordinary people to prove the existence of God, but not empty practice
Sickness unto Death (1849)/
Karl BarthKarl Barth
1886-1968 Argued: humans
imperfect, sinful creatures whose reason and will are hopelessly flawed
God’s grace/
Gabriel MarcelGabriel Marcel
1887-1973 Answer to postwar
“broken world”=Catholicism
Denounced Anti-Semitism/
Other Leading Christian Other Leading Christian IntellectualsIntellectuals
T.S. Eliot-Poet W.H. Auden-Poet Evelyn Waugh-novelist Aldous Huxley-novelist C.S. Lewis-writer Max Planck-physicist Cyril Joad-philosopher
“One began to believe in heaven because one believed in hell”-Graham Greene
The New Physics
Challenging the belief in unchanging natural laws First step----atoms made up of smaller particles
“Physics NO longer provided comforting truths about natural laws or optimistic answers about humanity’s place in an understandable world”/
Marie and Pierre CurieMarie and Pierre Curie
1867-1934 1859-1906 Radium constantly
emits subatomic particles and thus does not have a constant atomic weight./
Max PlanckMax Planck
1858-1947 1900-subatomic energy
is emitted in uneven little spurts= “quanta”
Questioned old beliefs/
Albert EinsteinAlbert Einstein
1879-1955 Theory of Special Relativity- time and space
are relative to the viewpoint of the observer and that only the speed of light is constant for all frames of reference in the universe.
Unified an apparently infinite universe with the incredibly small, fast-moving subatomic world/
Theory of Relativity
Impact
Manhattan Project New York Times Article (about Einstein)
Earnest RutherfordEarnest Rutherford
1871-1937 “heroic age of physics”-
1920s 1919-atom can be split 1944-neutron identified
***fundamental to construction of the atomic bomb/
Werner HeisenbergWerner Heisenberg
1901-1976 “uncertainty principle”-
nature is unknowable and unpredictable
Everything “Relative”-dependent on the observer’s frame of reference/
Sigmund FreudSigmund Freud
1856-1939 Agreed with Nietzsche Interpretation after WWI- reflected and
encouraged growing sexual experimentation, particularly among middle-class women
“Civilization and Its Discontent”– Civilization was only possible when individuals
renounced their irrational instinct in order to live peaceably in groups./
Freudian Psychology
assumed a single, unified conscious mind processed sensory experiences in a rational and logical way.
Reflects early 20th century spirit ID- human unconscious Ego- rationalizing conscious mediates what a person
can do Superego- ingrained moral values specify what a
person should so ***Shattered the enlightenment view of rationality
and progress***
2020thth Century Literature Century Literature
Influenced by pessimism, relativism, and alienation
Viewpoint of single individual Focused on complexity and irrationality of the
human mind/
Marcel ProustMarcel Proust
1871-1922 Remembrance of
Things Past (1913-1927)
– Discover inner most feelings
Stream-of-consciousness Stream-of-consciousness techniquetechnique
Relied on internal monologues to explore the psyche.
*James Joyce- Ulysses– A gigantic riddle waiting to be unraveled
Virginia Woolf-Jacob’s Room William Faulkner- The Sound and the Fury
William Faulkner
Virginia Woolf
James Joyce
Anti-UtopiasAnti-Utopias
Oswald Spengler– 1880-1936– The Decline of the West
T.S. Eliot– 1888-1965– The Waste Land
Franz Kafka– 1883-1924– The Trial– The Castle– The Metamorphosis
Oswald Spengler
T.S. Elliot
Franz Kafka