Social Darwinism Realism Positivism

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Social DarwinismRealismPositivism
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Questions About the Biological Universe

• Charles Darwin spent 25yrs gathering specimens
  from the natural world, and observing natural
  behaviour
• 1859 publishes On the Origin of Species by Means
  of Natural Selection
• Provided evidence that species were not fixed for
  all time
• Species adapted/evolved into new forms as
  conditions changed
• New species emerged, others died out
• Darwin called this process natural selection

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Darwin Natural Selection the Church

• Darwin stated this process was slow
• Suggests that Earth is millions of years old, not
  thousands as religious figures believed
• Charles Lyell was a contemporary geologist and
  his work supported Darwins time scale
• Work was met w/ religious opposition, why?
• Suggested that animals ( by implication humans)
  wee not special creations of God
• Each species had common ancestors, changed over
  time
• Places humans more closely to apes than angels

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Influence on Darwin

• Darwin was influenced by Thomas Malthus, Essay on
  Population (1798) stated
• Nature was not benign progress was not
  inevitable
• B/c population increases would overextend limited
  resource
• Proof
• Food supply increased arithmetically (1, 2, 3, 4,
  etc)
• Population increased geometrically (1, 2, 4, 8,
  etc)
• Consequence of this law was that as the
  population grew, suffering increases (despite
  advancements)
• Essentially, idea is about scarcity struggle

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Social Darwinism Herbert Spencer

• Application of Darwins ideas is known as Social
  Darwinism
• Spencer believed everything evolved from the
  simple uniform to the complex specialized
• Could explain all social, political
  intellectual development
• Survival of fittest struggle for existence was
  viewed as a normal good
• No govt should interfere w/ social environment
• Interferes w/ individual liberty
• Evil would disappear when every man may claim
  the fullest liberty to exercise his faculties
  (assume all ppl are equal)
• Competition was necessary b/c fit would emerge
  on top in economic and social struggles

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Social Darwinism Laissez-Faire

• Laissez-faire ideas became the norm
• Doctrine that governments should not interfere w/
  the economy that growth will occur as a result
  of marketplace decisions
• Spencer believed that the liberal error was in
  their attempt to make society equal humane
• Fittest would survive prosper while weakest
  would die out
• Society would be stronger as a result
• Social Darwinism was also used to support racism
• Stated that certain groups were naturally
  superior
• Scientific, technological advancements were often
  a basis
• Justified imperial control of inferior peoples
• Bismarcks Realpolitik was admired b/c it was
  based on power
• Supporters thought progress was measured by the
  strength of its army or industry
• Nothing immoral about using war to reach goals

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Religious Challenges

• Philology (the study of language in written
  historical sources) concluded that the Bible had
  been written by multiple sources _at_ different
  times
• Challenged belief that Bible was revealed truth
• David Strauss Life of Jesus (1835) argued that
  story of Jesus was fictitious
• Archeologists/anthropologists questioned
  uniqueness of Judaism Christianity claiming
  religions were created by ppl to comprehend the
  universe
• Darwins ideas were used in conjunction w/ these
• Many regarded these ideas as heresy inspired by
  the devil

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Religious Challenges

• Warfare b/w science theology was not universal
• Some religious thinkers accepted Lyell Darwin
• Felt that evolution could be apart of Gods plan
• Beauty in idea of all things being related
• Humans could be active participants in the plans
  completion
• Agnosticism emerged as a response to this debate
• Belief that the existence of things outside
  empirical phenomena, including God, cannot be
  known
• Therefore, ppl should not waste time debating it

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Realism

• Romanticism was replaced by Realism in the 1830s
• Belief that life should be depicted as it was
  seen
• Believed Romanticism too sentimental
  exaggerated
• Society needed to be portrayed the way it was
  created social novels
• Gustave Flaubert wrote Madame Bovary (1856)
• Depicts the dreary frustrated lives of the
  French middle class
• Heroine, Emma Bovary lives a dull life filled w/
  romantic fantasies
• Was extremely controversial for the time
• Middle class became more literate (have time)
• Novels were serialized in magazines penny
  pamphlets were created
• Novelists began shaping public opinion arousing
  interest for reform

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Positivism

• Society became a subject for scientific analysis
• Previously society simply existed
• Ppl were poor or rich, educated or not,
  intelligent or not etc.
• Auguste Comte question this acceptance
• Why were there rich and poor people?
• Could human society be improved through reforms?
• Created The Positive Philosophy positive
  meant scientific to Comte
• Goal of positivism was to achieve a scientific
  synthesis of all knowledge
• Could restructure society on the basis of
  scientific principles

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Positivism Sociology

• Comte felt humanity had progressed through 3
  stages of knowledge
• 1. Theological stage explained world through
  supernatural
• 2. Metaphysical stage explained world in
  abstract ideas
• 3. Positive stage explained world based on
  scientific laws
• Comte believed there were laws of society which
  could be discovered by studying its history
• Coined the term field of study as Sociology
• The study of both social statics social
  dynamics
• Statics were customs, institutions, legal-codes
  etc
• Dynamics were the study of social change to
  create/develop scientific laws on societies
  development
• Concluded that humanity was constantly
  progressing
• Predicted a world of peace eventually,
  co-operation to replace competition

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Impressionism

• Impressionism was an artistic reaction to the
  realist movement
• Claude Monets, Impression Sunrise (1872)
  attempts to capture the atmosphere of a sunrise
• Different b/c realists were attempting to depict
  things as if they were photographed
• Vincent Van Gogh, Starry Night (1889) is perhaps
  the most famous work
• Depicts universe as a galaxy of whirling light w/
  a finite village staged behind an infinitely
  creeping cypress tree

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Psychology Sigmund Freud

• Academics wanted to understand individual human
  actions irrational self-destructive behaviour
• Sigmund Freud believed that dreams were the key
  to understanding the human mind
• Dreams revealed the unconscious mind
• Main cause of our behaviour most important to
  understand
• Dreams allow subconscious mind to express itself
• Psychologists could interpret explain meanings
• Called the process psychoanalysis
• Believed ppl had unfulfilled desires
  unconscious motivates behaviour most related to
  sexual matters
• Although discredited by many today, Freud is
  regarded as the pioneer of psychology