Darwin, Freud, Einstein
Three pillars
Charles Darwin
Darwin’s Background
• Born 1809 in Shrewsbury,England
• British Naturalist
• Did not love school, but father insisted he go
to medical school (which he never finished)
• Learned taxidermy from a Creole freed slave
• Took an interest in Botony and Geology at
school
HMS Beagle
• Darwin asked to be naturalist on study of
South America aboard HMS Beagle
• Biggest revelations were on the Galapagos
Islands off of Ecuador.
• Realized that individual species of birds and
lizards had developed similar, but different
traits across barrier.
• They were “adapting” to environment of
Galapagos.
Natural Selection
• Darwin attempts to apply natural laws to his
discovery of adaptation.
• This led to the concept of Natural Selection –
where events and geography “choose” which
species survive.
• Darwin argued that those species with the
right adaptations survive.
• Writes by 1859 “On the Origin of Species”
Ape to Man
• Darwin extends his theory to man saying that
natural selection and adaptation allowed man
to become the dominant species.
• Man evolved to circumstances = evolution.
Impact of Darwin
• Destroyed the notion of God as the ultimate
creator for some.
• Further eroded Christianity
• Takes control of destiny out of the hands of
man and puts it into nature
• Justified our belief in hard science as the
answer.
• Social Darwinism
Social Darwinism
• Herbert Spencer the “originator” of Social
Darwinism
• Applies it to social classes and societies.
• Justification for imperialism, racism,
ethnocentrism, eugenics, scientific racism.
Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud
• Austrian Physician who spent most of his adult
life in Vienna.
• Freud believed early on that our conscious
thoughts are determined by hidden
unconscious forces.
• Freud attempted to put the scientific method
to the very “irrational” issue of thought and
psychosis.
The Basis of Freud’s Theories
• Sought to explore the unconscious mind
• Freud specialized in treating nervous disorders and
through this research established the concept of
neuroses.
• Often the result of childhood fears and experiences,
usually sexual in nature.
• Would treat these by trying to bring those
experiences to light
• Oedipal complex – he felt that boys have a poor
relationship with father based upon mother
Techniques Developed by Freud
• Free Association – the basis of much
psychoanalysis today
• Dream Analysis – sought to analyze why
people have dreams and saw them as a
window into their neurosis.
Freud’s Large Conclusion
• Id – subconscious instincts – primitive and
irrational. This is the ultimate in gratification
and anger
• Ego – the reasonable side of consciousness –
society becomes the method for repressing
the Id through the ego.
• Superego – the balance to the Id, seeks to
almost punish for its instincts and faults – it
gives us a sense of right and wrong
Implications for Freud
• Establishment of Psychology as a social
science
• Is it an ideology or a science?
• Made people relinquish control of their mind sub conscious.
• Began the serious study of the brain.
• Eventually leads to concepts of brain as an
electrical entity.
Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein
• Born in Ulm, Germany in 1879
• Trained in the Swiss Polytechnic School in
Zurich – worked in Patent Office during
Doctoral Work.
• Did most of his best work from 1905-1911.
• Eventually moved back to Berlin but
renounced his citizenship in 1933.
• Moved to US and became professor of
Theoretical Physics at Princeton
Special Theory of Relativity
• The Special Theory of Relativity – E=mc2
• Remarkably, he derived all his work from two
simple postulates applying to inertial frames (i.e.,
objects that move with constant velocity with
respect to each other):
– The laws of physics are the same in all inertial frames.
– The speed of light is a constant in all inertial frames.
– So in essence time can be at at different rates
throughout the universe, depending on how fast you
moved
General Theory of Relativity
• Explains how gravitation is a distortion of the
structure of space time by matter, affecting
the inertial motion of other matter
• This is why Copernicus’ theory finally holds
water – it explains why gravity maintains
motion around a sun.
• It also demonstrates why light bends.
• http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/einstein/rela
tivity/
Implication for the Special Theory
and General Theory
• Indirectly, relativity became associated with a
new relativism in morality and art and politics.
There was less faith in absolutes, not only of
time and space, but also of truth and morality.
• Moral Relativism – there are no universal
truths
• Nuclear Energy – the basis of all nuclear
energy and nuclear weapons
Nietzsche
• German Philosopher in the late 1800’s
• He believed in life, creativity, health, and the
realities of the world we live in, rather than
those situated in a world beyond.
• Existentialist philosopher
• Postmodernist thinker
• “God is dead” – an atheist and believed that
the death of God would kill objective truth.
• Nihilism – the belief in nothingness – credited
to him although not always espoused
Friederich Nietzsche
Existentialism
• Existentialism in the broader sense is a 20th
century philosophy that is centered upon the
analysis of existence and of the way humans
find themselves existing in the world. The
notion is that humans exist first and then each
individual spends a lifetime changing their
essence or nature.
• Biggest proponent is Satre – credited with
starting it. – No Exit
• “existence precedes essence”
Jean Paul Satre
So in the end….
• How do these men influence thought at the
end of the century?
Man Is Left Adrift
• God is gone (Nietzsche)
• Your existence is in question (Satre)
• You have no free will to determine your place
in nature (Darwin)
• Your mind is not completely under your will
(Freud)
• Your physical view of time and space is ripped
apart (Einstein)
• You are….the modern man.