The Birth of Modern European
Thought
Andre McDermott
Evan Fisher
Andre Kratzer

During the last quarter of the 19th century philosophers,
scientists, psychologists, and artists began to portray physical
reality, human nature, and society in ways different from those of
the past.

These new concepts challenged the major presuppositions of min
19th century science.
Toward a Twentieth-Century
Frame of Mind

1883, Ernst Mach (1883-1916) published The Science of
Mechanics urging that scientist begin being descriptive of the
sensations that they experience and not only that of the physical
world

In December of 1895 Wilhelm Roentgen published a paper on his
discovery of X rays, a form of energy that penetrated carious
opaque materials. After this discovery exploration of radioactivity
began to flourish.
Henri Becuerel- Discovered that uranium emitted a similar form
of energy
 J.J. Thompson- Formulated the theory of the electron
 Ernest Rutherford- Explained the cause of radiation through the
breakdown of the atoms of radioactive materials

Science: The Revolution in
Physics

In 1900 Max Planck pioneered the articulation of the “quantum
theory of energy”

In 1905 Albert Einstein published his first epoch making papers
on relativity in which he contended that time and space exist not
separately, but rather as a combined continuum.

In 1927 Werner Heisenberg set forth is “uncertainty principle”

The successful explorations in physics made science once again
very popular which lead to government funding in the various
fields of science.
Science: The Revolution in
Physics

The realist movement in literature portrayed the hypocrisy, brutality,
and the dullness that underlay bourgeois life.

Realism rejected the romantic idealization of nature, the poor, love,
and polite society. Realist novelists portrayed the dark side of life.

Charles Dickens (1812-1870) and Honore de Balzac (1799-1850)
portrayed the cruelty of industrial life and of a society based on
money.
Gustave Flaubert’s (1821-1880) wrote Madame Bovary which was
critiqued as the first realistic novel.
Emile Zola (1840-1902) turned realism into a movement with his
“Introduction to the Study of Experimental Medicine.” Between 1871
and 1893 Zola published twenty novels exploring subjects normally
untouched by writers: alcoholism, prostitution, adultery, and labor
strife.


Literature: Realism and
Naturalism

Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906) a Norwegian playwright carried realism
into the dramatic presentation of domestic life in a series of
plays. He wanted to strip away the misleading mask of middleclass morality.

George Shaw (1856-1950) defended Ibsen’s work with his own
work which includes Mrs. Warren’s Professions (1893-dealt with
prostitution), Arms and the Man (1894), and Man and Superman
(1903) in which both dealt with his hate on romantic ideals of
love and war. In Androcles and the Lion (1913), he pilloried
Christianity.

Realist writers believed that it was their duty to portray reality
and the commonplace and by doing so they helped change the
moral perception of the good life.
Literature: Realism and
Naturalism

Another movement known as modernism touched all the arts
throughout Europe from the 1870’s onward. Just like realism,
modernism was critical of middle-class society and morality.

Modernism had a concern that focused less on social issues and more
on aesthetic or the beautiful.

Walter Pater (1839-1903) set the tone of the movement when he
declared in 1877 that all art “constantly aspires to the condition of
music.”
In England, members of the Boomsbury Group lead the movement.
In this group were authors Virginia Woolf (1882-1941), and Leonard
Woolf (1880-1969), artists Vanessa Bell (1879-1961) and Duncan
Grant (1885-1978), the historian and literary critic Lytton Strachey
(1880-1932), and the economist John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946)

Modernism in Literature

Keynesian economics eventually challenged much of the structure
of 19th century economic theory. In both personal practice and
theory, the Bloomsbury Group rejected what they regarded as the
repressive sexual morality of their parents’ generation.

In Germany, Thomas Mann (1875-1955), through a long series of
novels, the most famous being Buddenbrooks (1901) and The
Magic Mountain (1924), explored both the social experience of
middle-class Germans and how they dealt with the intellectual
heritage of the 19th century.

Modernism in literature arouse before WWI and flourished after
the war. The war helped people accept the works of modernism
due to all the turmoil and social dislocation it created.
Modernism in Literature
A change in European painting primarily began in Paris and had
two major different characteristics that marked this change.
 First instead of portraying religious, mythological, and historical
themes, painters began to depict modern life itself, focusing on
the social life and leisured activities of the urban middle and
lower middle classes.
 Second, many of these artists were fascinated with light, color,
and the representation through painting itself of momentary,
largely unfocused, visual experience whether of social life or of
landscape.


These types of paintings were called impressionistic and were
considered them curious and artistically shocking when they were
first displayed.
The Coming of Modern Art
Impressionists artists include Edward Manet (1837-1883), Claude
Monet (1840-1926), Camille Pissaro (1830-1903), Pierre-Auguste
Renoir (1841-1919), and Edgar Degas (1834-1917)
 These paintings would become the most popular works visited in
both European and American art museums, and would bring the
various social classes together while enjoying a leisure activity

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By the 1880’s impressionists had had an enormous impact on
contemporary art, and their work was followed by younger artists
who used their techniques but also tried to relate it to earlier
artistic traditions.
This new group of artists were known as post-impressionists
The main figures associated with the new style included Georges
Seurat, Paul Cezanne, Vincent Van Gogh, and Paul Gauguin.
The Coming of Modern Art

The single most important new departure in early- twentieth-century
Western art was cubism, a term first coined to describe the paintings
of Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) and Georges Braque (1882-1963).

Picasso and Braque rejected the belief that painting is supposed to
represent the appearance of reality but instead believed that finished
art should serve no certain purpose.

“The painter thinks in forms and colors, The aim is not to reconstitute
an anecdotal fact but to constitute a pictorial fact…. One does not
imitate the appearance; the appearance is the result”

Each of these artist echoed the art of ancient Egypt, medical
primitives, and Africa, using only two dimensions in their paintings.
The Coming of Modern Art
German Philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) attacked
Christianity, democracy, nationalism, rationality, science, and
progress. His first well known work “The Birth of Tragedy (1872)”
he emphasized is belief that rational characteristics are just as
important as non-rational aspects of human nature.
 Important quotes of Nietzsche- “There are no moral phenomena
at all, but only a moral interpretation of phenomena.,” “W need a
critique of moral values; the value of these values themselves
must first be called in question.”

Friedrich Nietzsche and the Revolt
Against Reason

Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) is known as the “Father of
Psychology”

Freud believed that dreams had a scientific meaning which led
him to conclude that dreams allow unconscious wishes, desires,
and drives that had been excluded from everyday conscious life
to enjoy free play in the mind. Further explanations can be found
in his book “The Interpretation of Dreams”

He believed there are three internal conflicters in our minds: Idconsist of amoral, irrational, driving instincts for sexual
gratification, aggression, and general pleasure. Superegoembodies the external moral imperatives and expectations
imposed on the personality by society and culture. Ego- mediates
between the impulses of the id and the superego.
The Birth of Psychoanalysis

By the early 1900’s Freud had gathered around him a small group
of followers. Most importantly Carl Jung (1875-1961) who was a
highly praised student of Freud.

Jung believed the human subconscious contains inherited
memories from previous generations, which collectively influence
the traits of the individual.

The Psychoanalytic movement influenced not only psychology, but
also sociology, anthropology, religious studies, and literary theory.
The Birth of Psychoanalysis

A German sociologist Max Weber (1864-1920) regarded the
emergence of rationalism throughout society as the major
development of human history.

Unlike most social scientist, Weber put emphasis on the individual
and on the dominant role of rationality. Socialist such as Gustave
LeBon (1841-1931) studied the behaviors of people while in large
crowds. He believed that crowds behave irrationally as if it were
instincts

Besides Weber all theorists emphasized the role of collective
groups in politics rather than that of the individual, formerly
championed by liberals.
Retreat from Rationalism in
Politics