How Did We Get Sooo Modern

1
How Did We Get Sooo Modern?

• Placing the 20th C. in Context

2
The 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

3
Basic Tenets of the Enlightenment

• Autonomy of reason
• The world can progress and approach perfection
• We can discover causality
• Principles govern
• nature
• man
• society

4
Rene 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

5
Sir 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

6
Have 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

7
Newtons 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

8
Well 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

9
AND 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

10
The 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

11
The 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

12
Carl Linnaeus (1707-1778) Converting Knowledge
into a Rational System
13
Medicine 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

14
The 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

15
The 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

16
THE 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

17
The Deep Sea Cables by Rudyard Kipling 1896
18
Nearing 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

19
ART 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