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