Title: How Did We Get Sooo Modern
1How Did We Get Sooo Modern?
- Placing the 20th C. in Context
2The 18th C. the AGE OF ENLIGHTENMENT
- Industrial revolution supplies the pot in which
the Enlightenment can stew - Thinkers from Paris and London Descartes,
Pascal, Voltaire, Diderot, Rousseau, etc. - Human reason can combat ignorance, superstition
tyranny - Provided basis for
- French American revolutions
- Rise of capitalism socialism
- Targets
- organized religion
- Hereditary aristocracy
3Basic Tenets of the Enlightenment
- Autonomy of reason
- The world can progress and approach perfection
- We can discover causality
- Principles govern
- nature
- man
- society
4Rene Descartes1596-1650
- "father" of modern philosophy
- integrate philosophy with the "new" sciences
- he may doubt, he cannot doubt that he exists
- I think, therefore I am.
- Focus reason, abstraction, definition
5Sir Isaac Newton(1642-1727) Mathematician and
physicist
- Focus
- OBSERVATION
- EXPERIENCE
- Fundamental Cosmic laws applicable from the
tinniest object to the entire universe - During Enlightenment, Newtons analytical methods
are applied to every arena of thought and
knowledge - Order arises from the analysis of observed facts
6Have you had your apple today?
- Discovers gravity
- Asserts the force governing the motion of the
apple also determines the motion of the moon - Orbits travel in an ellipse
7Newtons Mechanical Universe
- Mathematical models can explain the behavior of
the universe - Universe functions rationally predictably
- Gravity explains the consistent mechanical
movement of universe - Theology religion are no longer necessary to
explain physical phenomena of universe
8Well then, what about God?
- Universe resembles a clock built by God
- God sets the universe in motion
- Follows concept of INERTIA every object rests
until moved by another object every object in
motion stays in motion until redirected or
stopped by another object - God starts the world and steps back
9AND IFThe universe is a machine we can
understand through observation
- THEN
- SO CAN HISTORY, ECONOMICS, POLITICS, HUMAN
CHARACTER - AND THEY CAN BE ENGINEERED OR IMPROVED LIKE
MACHINES
10The Rise of Deism
- Newton separates the mechanical universe from
religious explantion - If the universe was created by God and is also
rational ? God is rational - To understand the workings of the universe is to
understand the mind of God - Therefore, religion itself is rational
11The Prevalence of English Deism
- Impersonal deity
- Common morality of all humans
- Faith in humanity
- Assumed that man is guided by reason
- Rejection of original sin
- Salvation comes through social contract
- Man must save himself
12Carl Linnaeus (1707-1778) Converting Knowledge
into a Rational System
13Medicine the Enlightenment
- Body as natural system that functioned
predictably rationally it operated like a
machine - Disease is a malfunction
- Study of disease known as pathology
- Blood circulation, inoculation, anatomy,
microscopic anatomy
14The Enlightenments Impact on History
- Historical truth derives from objective review of
the human record - Man evolves and progresses
- Laws govern both heavenly earthly matters
- Laws give power to kings power rather than kings
giving power to laws. Viva la France! - Law seen as a relationship between people
- Increasing focus on individual liberty
- Enlightenment sought reform of monarchy
15The Pendulum Swings Romanticism
- Romantics view the Enlightenment
- hyper rational
- Dehumanizing
- Emotionally restrictive
- Superficial source of knowledge
- Romantics critical of industrial revolution,
middle class materialism - Celebrates the I, Nature, feeling imagination
- Belief in mans innate goodness
16THE NOBLE SAVAGE
- 18th C. increased travel
- Expansion of British Empire colonialism
- Europeans considered their civilization advanced
- They encountered the noble savage
- Reinforced notion of progress
- Reinforced ideas of a universal moral sense
inherent in man -
17The Deep Sea Cables by Rudyard Kipling 1896
18Nearing the End Fin de Siecle (The End of an
Age)
- Late Victorian reaction to rigid moral system
- The approach of the 20th C.
- Daring new styles, attitudes, behavior
- Artists broke from moral constraints emphasized
spirituality, sensuality, love - Era that coined the terms homosexual, lesbian,
heterosexual
19ART FOR ARTS SAKE
- Rebellion against Victorian morals
- Defied notion that art had a moral or didactic
purpose - Art is not utilitarian
- valuable simply as art
- need only be beautiful
- Can be enjoyed apart from its representational
subject matter - Concept is precursor to abstract art
- Life should copy art