Enrichment Session 2 1Aug 2013 - Appendix
IDEAS THAT CHANGED THE WORLD – 15
The idea of the global village and cultural pluralism
The idea of a mediated reality
The idea that the ‘medium is the message’
The idea of environmentalism
The idea of eco affluence and eco collapse
The idea of the ‘tipping point’
The idea of commodification of the environment
The idea of monetary theory – and a price for
everything
The idea of the free market – Laissez-faire
The idea of the labour theory of value
The idea of public education
The idea of child development and theories of child
development
The idea of genetic determinism and intelligence (no
longer fashionable)
The idea of manipulating the code of life /DNA
The idea of artificial intelligence
The idea of an engineered universe
The idea of harnessing natural energy
The idea of natural selection and eugenics
The idea of scientific racism
The idea of anti Semitism
The idea of universal welfare
The idea of welfare economics
The idea of religious pluralism
The idea of religious fundamentalism
The idea of godless humanism
The idea of cultural relativism
The idea of man in a “state of nature” – nasty, brutish,
short
TH
CENTURY TO 2000
The idea of primitive virtue – “the noble savage”
Corgito Ergo Sum – the idea that individual existence
is verifiable (“I think therefore I am”)
The idea of human unity and universal brotherhood
The idea of overpopulation and Malthus’s limits to
growth
The idea of abstraction (in art)
The idea of feminism and the second sex
The conservative idea – unwillingness to tamper
radically with things as they are.
The idea of pragmatism
The idea of utilitarianism and the greatest good
The idea of unpredictability and chaos theory
The idea of the social contract
The idea of expansionism and conquest
The idea that war improves society (Hegel)
The idea that ‘might is right’
The idea of a weapon to end war
The idea of total war - “the nation in arms”
The idea of civil disobedience
The idea of the unchallengeable State
The idea of the overriding interest of the State
The idea of representative democracy, “We, the
people”
The idea of inalienable human rights (and
accompanying duties)
The idea of terrorism and a climate of fear
The idea of international order and the law of nations
The idea of class struggle
The idea of socialism and extreme optimism
The idea of nationalism
The meritocratic idea
SIGNIFICANT IDEAS OF THE LAST DECADE?
SOME -ISMS REPRESENTING A PHILOSOPHICAL, POLITICAL OR MORAL DOCTRINE OR A BELIEF SYSTEM
Word
absolutism
agnosticism
anarchism
capitalism
conservatism
constructivism
determinism
dualism
egalitarianism
egoism
existentialism
functionalism
hedonism
humanism
humanitarianism
idealism
individualism
instrumentalism
intellectualism
legalism
liberalism
libertarianism
materialism
monotheism
nihilism
objectivism
optimism
pragmatism
prescriptivism
probabilism
pyrrhonism
racism
rationalism
reductionism
romanticism
scientism
self-determinism
skepticism
socialism
solipsism
subjectivism
tolerationism
transcendentalism
universalism
utilitarianism
Definition
doctrine of government by a single absolute ruler; autocracy
doctrine that we can know nothing beyond material phenomena
doctrine that all governments should be abolished
doctrine that private ownership and free markets should govern economies
belief in maintaining political and social traditions
belief that knowledge and reality do not have an objective value
doctrine that events are predetermined by preceding events or laws
doctrine that the universe is controlled by one good and one evil force
belief that humans ought to be equal in rights and privileges
doctrine that the pursuit of self-interest is the highest good
doctrine of individual human responsibility in an unfathomable universe
doctrine emphasising utility and function
belief that pleasure is the highest good
belief that human interests and mind are paramount
doctrine that the highest moral obligation is to improve human welfare
belief that our experiences of the world consist of ideas
belief that individual interests and rights are paramount
doctrine that ideas are instruments of action
belief that all knowledge is derived from reason
belief that salvation depends on strict adherence to the law
doctrine of social change and tolerance
doctrine that personal liberty is the highest value
belief that matter is the only extant substance
belief in only one God
denial of all reality; extreme scepticism
doctrine that all reality is objective
doctrine that we live in the best of all possible worlds
doctrine emphasizing practical value
belief that moral edicts are merely orders with no truth value
belief that knowledge is always probable but never absolute
total or radical skepticism
belief that race is the primary determinant of human capacities
belief that reason is the fundamental source of knowledge
belief that complex phenomena are reducible to simple ones
belief in sentimental feeling in artistic expression
belief that the methods of science are universally applicable
doctrine that the actions of a self are determined by itself
doctrine that true knowledge is always uncertain
doctrine of centralized state control of wealth and property
theory that self-existence is the only certainty
doctrine that all knowledge is subjective
doctrine of toleration of religious differences
theory that emphasizes that which transcends perception
belief in universal salvation
belief that utility of actions determines moral value