1. AP EURO Unit #6 – Early 20th Century (The World Wars) New Philosophies of the 20th Century
PPT 605

2. Modern Philosophy Generalize the new thinking…
Friedrich Nietzsche
Nietzsche – questioned values of society
Democracy, progress, even respectability was suffocating
Saw Christianity as glorifying weakness
“GOD IS DEAD”
Georges Sorel – Marxism is a religion; democracy is bad
Existentialism – stressed meaninglessness of existence
Moral values found in yourself
Jean-Paul Sartre
Albert Camus (The Stranger)
Soren Kierkegaard – impossible to prove God – takes a leap of faith
Religion now relevant and meaningful
Generalize the new thinking…

3. New Physics Why will this matter? What’s so exceptional?
Discovery: Atom was not a solid – made up of energy
Marie Curie – discovered radium consistently emits particles
So, weight keeps changing
Atoms theorized to be splitable
She was first woman to win Nobel Prize for Peace
ONLY person to win in two different sciences
Albert Einstein – theory of relativity
Only light is constant
Why will this matter?
What’s so exceptional?

4. Freudian Psychology Sigmund Freud Austrian
Belief that you’re born with proclivities
First to really consider mental illness
Theorized your three personality parts
The id
the ego
the superego
Developed Psychoanalysis
Discussed development in terms of psychosexual stages
Oral, anal, etc.
Fixations, frustrations
Developed Freudian psychology
Would you categorize Freud as exceptional? Why?

5. Attitudes in Literature
New focus: climate of pessimism, relativism and alienation
New technique: stream of consciousness – inner monologue
Virginian Wolfe
James Joyce (Ulysses) – a single day in the life of an ordinary man
Oswald Spengler – Decline of the West
Franz Kafka – The Metamorphasis
Enrich Remarque – All Quiet of the Western Front
What does it seem like they are all reflecting?

6. Mass Culture – Consumer
More people made enough $$ for luxury items
Industrialization mass produced inexpensive goods
“new woman” – highly independent
Got the right to vote
Held jobs, researched latest fashion trends, wore make-up, smoked cigarettes
Used sex appeal to lure men – no longer yearned for marriage
Cinema – movies – era of silent films
Equalized society
Radio
Guiglielmo Marconi – invented around 1900
Became HUGE in 1920s
Britain: BBC (government controlled)
Tie this all together… how is society now defining itself?