Historical Background: 18th
& 19th Centuries:
Idealism, Transcendentalism, Socialism, Materialism, & Evolution
© Susan Fleck
1)
a)
Throughout
b)
1808: take over
i)
Napoleon
conquered most
ii)
. . . then rapid
collapse after invasion of
c)
Consequences,
besides extreme scale, death, sickness, destruction
i)
Restoration of
monarchy in
ii)
Dissolution of
(1)
Sowed seeds of
nationalism in
iii)
Spanish Empire
unraveling
(1)
French occupation
weakened hold over colonies
(2)
Provided opening
for nationalist revolutions in
iv)
2)
a)
Thomas Paine: African
Slavery in
b)
Frederick Douglass:
Narrative of Life (1831, 1865); Harriet Beecher Stowe: Uncle Tom’s
Cabin (1852)
c)
Underground
Railroad: Harriet Tubman
d)
Some calling for
immediate abolition:
unconditional emancipation & civil equality
e)
Others calling
for “containment:” i.e., no spread of slavery beyond southern states
3)
U.S. Civil War
(1861-1865):
a)
Abraham Lincoln
(1864 election – President): eloquent in stating national purpose
b)
Civil War was an
Industrial War:
c)
Consequences: 3%
population casualties (deadliest war for
i)
Strengthened role
of Federal Government; Full restoration of the
ii)
Contentious
postwar era known as Reconstruction
4)
a)
Continentalism:
belief
b)
Acquisitions: Purchases:
c)
Legal treaties
& wars with Indians: Mexican-American War, 1845-48, over
d)
Other islands (
5)
Thinkers / Philosophers
of this period (18th – 19th Centuries)
a)
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-78, French)
i)
Romantic thinker
(also enlightenment)
ii)
Exploration of
the self (non-religious autobio)
(1)
Subjectivity of
the self: Confessions –
reflective self-analysis
(2)
Celebration of
the self, even when hopes dashed by outcome of French Revolution
iii)
Bring the
revolutionary ideal from social realm into the personal realm- create a better
mind
b) Intellectual crisis of
Enlightenment: Commitment to sovereignty of reason
i)
It was about
replacing traditional authorities with authority of individual human reason
(1)
not about
overturning traditional moral/religious beliefs
ii)
Yet original
inspiration was the new physics, which was viewed as entirely mechanistic
(1)
It may seem- no
room for freedom, a soul, or anything but matter in motion (i.e. determinism)
(2)
We must be free
to choose right/wrong: accountable; Threatened belief in eternal soul /
resurrection
iii)
Modern science,
source of Enlightenment’s optimism, threatened to undermine beliefs that free rational
thought was expected to support
c)
Immanuel Kant (1724-1804, Prussian): Transcendental Idealism:
Comprehensive system: (Ayn Rand’s Arch nemesis)
i)
German Idealist:
his goal – to synthesize empiricism and rationalism
ii)
His main goal:
show that a critique of reason, using reason, unrestrained by traditional
authorities, establishes a secure basis for both Newtonian science and
traditional morality and religion
(1)
i.e., for Kant,
Philosophy is meant to be a bridge between Science and Religion
iii)
(Kant) Transcendental
Idealism: Cannot know the “thing in itself” (epistemology)
(1)
Categories of
understanding in the mind (“intuition”) is the mind’s way to understand the phenomena
(sensory)
(2)
noumena (transcendental object) remains unknown
(3)
Kant restricts science to the realm of appearances; a
priori knowledge of things in themselves that transcend possible human
experience is impossible
(4)
Belief in God, freedom, & immortality have a strictly
moral basis: impossible to disprove claims about them
(5)
“Thus,” Kant says, “I had to deny knowledge in order to
make room for faith” (Bxxx)
(Moral arguments may therefore justify us in “believing”)
(6)
Ethics: Categorical
Imperative (DUTY ethics): Similar to the Golden Rule (“do unto others . .
.)
(a)
Act only according to that maxim by
which you can at the same time will
that it should become a universal law
(b)
actions have moral worth only if we do them
because they are the right thing to do (from a good will), not because we
desire certain consequences
d)
George Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831): German Idealism:
Comprehensive system:
i)
“Absolute
Spirit:” developmental process of
everything: Conceptual framework: includes past, present, future:
Full account of reality itself
(1)
Purpose of Philosophy:
clarify Absolute Spirit; the Internal rational structure of Absolute
(a)
Regarded as pure
Thought, or Sprit, or Mind in process of self-development
(b)
How Absolute
manifests itself in nature & in human history: Dialectic: thesis,
antithesis, and synthesis
(c)
Explain
teleological nature of Absolute (end purpose)
(d)
Universal mind,
through evolution, seeks to arrive at the highest level of self-awareness and
freedom
e)
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-82): American Transcendentalism; rooted in Kant
i)
Ideal spiritual
state transcends the physical and empirical: realized through individual’s intuition
ii)
Emerson, Thoreau,
Whitman – others
iii)
Ground religion
derived from inner, spiritual or mental essence of the human
iv)
Human mind
“informs” experience; transcendental is not beyond human experience; but
something through which experience is made possible (Kantian)
v)
Nature: union of humanity with nature: Resonated with
vi)
Revolution in
human consciousness should emerge
f)
Henry David Thoreau (1817-62): American Transcendentalist, author, poet
i)
Walden: simple living in natural surroundings; interested in
survival in ‘elements,’ and historical change
ii)
Over 20 volumes:
books, articles, essays, poetry
iii)
Lifelong
abolitionist (to abolish slavery)
iv)
Civil
Disobedience: resistance in moral
opposition to an unjust state: Influenced later thinkers: Mahatma Gandhi and
Martin Luther King Jr.
g)
Socialism
i)
Jean Jacques
Rousseau: early communism; he did not like institution of private property
ii)
Attempts at
Socialism: Charles Fourier (1772-1837) Fr. Philosopher: communities of
1600-1800 people
(1)
Red Bank, NJ (tried & failed quickly)
iii)
Étienne Cabet
(1788-1856) Fr. Philosopher: tried communal societies in
(1)
Influenced Karl Marx & Friedrich Engels
h)
Karl Marx
(1818-1883, German): Dialectical Materialism
i)
Born Jewish,
baptised Lutheran, becomes atheist: “Religion is the opiate of the Masses”
ii)
“The Communist
Manifesto:” co-authors with Friedrich Engels
iii)
Theory grounded
in Hegel’s philosophy (without the “Spirit”): Scientific Socialism is grounded
in a study of history
(1)
Marx was also
influenced by
iv)
Hegel: Universal
Spirit guides History: IT is working toward freedom
(1)
mind or spirit manifests itself in a set of
contradictions & oppositions that are ultimately integrated and united
(2)
Dialectic Logic:
Thesis – a point in time (idea); Anti-Thesis—an argument (new idea that
challenges Thesis); Synthesis—(new Thesis) ----- cycle repeats
v)
Marx: Historical
Materialism (no God); Historical Determinism (automatic) – Communism WILL come
(1)
Stages of History
(a)
Primitive
Communism
(b)
Ancient Slave societies
(c)
Feudal Society
(d)
Capitalism –
bourgeois society
(e)
The Proletariat
Revolution (world wide)
(f)
Dictatorship of
the Proletariat
(g)
Perfect Communist
Society: (a Classless society)
(2)
Feudal society
(thesis); with Superstructure of Catholic Religion, two classes—Nobles &
peasants (serfs)
(a)
Economic
Substructure: agriculture: creates / determines superstructure, based on means
of production
(3)
The Bourgeoisie
merchants (anti-thesis)
(4)
Capitalism
(synthesis): A change in economic base means change in superstructure also
(a)
Catholic church
diminished by the Protestant churches
(b) Serfdom changes into Freedom
(b)
Absolutism to
limited Constitutional government
(c)
Kings to captains
of Industry
(5)
Labor Theory of
Value: Proletariat is cheated by Capitalist
(a)
Product is sold
for its true price; workers wage is only subsistence – not equal to true cost;
capitalists get profit
(6)
Alienation
(Capitalism is to blame):
(a)
Due to separation
of labor in factories: Workers alienated from the product; no longer build a
complete product;
no longer have pride in their work
(b)
Alienates
Capitalists (managers) from workers (i.e., managers versus workers, unions)
(c)
Alienates
Capitalists from other Capitalists (they talk through their lawyers)
(7)
“From each
according to his ability . . . to each according to his needs
(a)
There is Enough
to satisfy everyone’s needs: Physical labor will (somehow) be (almost)
eliminated in the new world of communism; Work will be source of pleasure &
creativity
(i)
Slogan meant to
suggest each person should develop their particular talents
i) Hermann
von Helmholz (1821-1894, German): Energy: Physician, physicist, philosopher
i)
Theories on
conservation of energy: total amount of energy in a system is constant
ii)
Principle led to
monumental discoveries in fields of thermodynamics, electromagnetism, nuclear
physics
iii)
Theory:
mechanics, heat, light, electricity, and magnetism- manifestations of a single force
(energy)
j)
Charles Darwin: The Descent of Man; On the Origin of Species (1859): evolution by natural selection
i)
Set foundations
for all of modern medicine and biology
ii)
iii)
Universal Darwinism: to formulate a generalized
version of the mechanisms of variation,
selection and heredity,
so that they can be applied to explain evolution in a wide variety of other
domains, including psychology, economics, culture, society, medicine, computer
science and physics.
k)
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900, German):
i)
(1)
Prior to
(2)
metaphysical consequence of this notion is profound
(3)
irretrievably set human beings into the realm of the
contingent (verses mechanistic determinism)
(4)
human morality was no more grounded in some transcendent
purpose than any other natural phenomenon
(5)
It used to be difficult to deny that
the world seemed to be following a course laid down by a directing agency (God)
(6)
What had seemed to be order could now be explained as
random change:
“The total nature of the world is . . .
to all eternity Chaos”
(7)
The ‘divine’ attributes of
man had in reality descended to him from the animals.
Man was in touch with no ‘beyond’, and was no different from any other
creature
(8)
As God had been the meaning of the universe, so man had
been the meaning of the earth.
Now God and man, as hitherto understood, no longer existed
(9)
The universe and the earth were without meaning: a disastrous notion to Nietzsche
(a)
Nietzshe’s goal:
produce a new (better) world-picture that would be reconciled with Truth of
Evolution
ii)
Nietzsche’s
Ubermensch: Autonomous “highest type of man” – a nonconformist with a “will to
power”
(1)
He regarded modern morality, which speaks of humanity as
a whole, as particularly dangerous
(a) because it requires
suppression of the cruelty & recklessness that distinguishes the strong
individual.
(b) The height of
self-realization cannot be reached by someone who is too concerned with the
reactions of others.
(c)
A fundamental conflict between the pursuit of individual
creativity & perfection, and claims of general welfare
(2)
Nietzsche was an
Arch antiauthoritarian: influential to early modernist art, literature, and
philosophy
iii)
Nietzsche on Art:
The Birth of Tragedy: theory of dualism of aesthetic experience
(1)
Order,
regularity, calm repose – Apollonian (Apollo represents reason and
intellectualism)
(2)
Intoxication,
forgetfulness, chaos, dissolution of identity in the collective – Dionysian
(Dionysus- God of festivals, madness and wine)
(3)
Schopenhauer
view: non-rational forces: foundation of creativity & reality
(4)
Nietzsche
laments: Dionysian energy became overshadowed by Apollonian forces of logical
order
(a)
European culture
since Socrates – “bottled-up”
iv)
Nietzsche’s
Influence: Cultural rebirth: resurrect Dionysian artistic energies: creativity,
joy in existence, ultimate truth
(1)
Seeds of rebirth
– in German composers (Bach, Beethoven, espc. Wagner)
(2)
Attractive to
avant garde artists
(3)
Elements of sheer
animal instinct, influenced Freud’s theories & development of psychoanalysis
(4)
1930s, aspects
(“superman”) appropriated by Nazis and Facists: justify war and aggression
(5)
Early Ayn Rand:
Influenced by N’s individualism
l)
Sigmund Freud (1856-1939, Austrian): Father of psychoanalysis
i)
Theory: mind as
complex energy system: Physics:
(1)
Influenced by Helmholz:
conservation of energy; by Ernst Brüke’s view that all living organisms
essentially energy-systems just like inanimate objects; and by
ii)
One can Understand
& Treat the structure of the mind: unconscious, repression, 3-way split in
mind
iii)
Cites
iv)
Goal: Learn
motivational causes of human behavior
v)
Adopted new
‘dynamic physiology’ view
vi)
Next step: such a
thing as ‘psychic energy’: The human personality is also an energy system
(1)
Function of
psychology to investigate the modifications, transmissions, and conversions of
‘psychic energy’
vii)
Theory of
unconscious, then, highly deterministic
(1)
Human behavior in
total explained in terms of (usually hidden) mental states that determine it
(2)
Neurotic behavior
is NOT causally inexplicable: Psychology’s work: to find causes to explain
problems
(3)
Freedom of will,
if not illusion, is very limited
(4)
Id, Ego,
Super-Ego (The It, the I, the Over-I)
6)
Art: Romanticism:
Attitude over Style
a)
Enlightenment
“reason” too cold & emotionless
i)
reason was
killing imagination
ii)
reason neglected
religious experience
iii)
reason killed
mystery: the sense of terror as well as the sense of the sublime
b)
Knowledge also
comes with emotion & intuition
c)
Growing trust in
subjective experience: Nature is not just an object to be studied and conquered
i)
Example: rational
thought led to Reign of Terror
ii)
Much focus on the
beauty of nature
d)
Inexactitude
& Indeterminacy worldview: Art featured imaginary, creative arrangement of
reality (fuzzy inexactitude)
e)
Glorification of
the Self & Originality; the Individual’s experience (not just as a
political subject)
i)
Romantic genius of
artists, composers, writers:: don’t merely copy others– create a “true”
original
ii)
Celebration of
Heroes; but also point out anti-heroism; also recognize humans are only small
part of natural world
f)
Empathy for the
disadvantaged & downtrodden
7)
Art: Realism:
Objective: depict representation of reality, that includes the sordid, the
seamy, the disgusting & the low
a)
objective
observation; grounded in the contemporary; Attention on what's immediately
around us.
b)
Much focus on
somber life of the poor