1. Chapter 27: Age of Anxiety 1900-1940

2. Hopelessness after World War I End to old order Communist totalitarianism and fascism Great Depression

3. “Age of Anxiety” New world in the aftermath of WWI Blow to Western civilization No control Continual crisis

4. Modern Philosophy After the war, new and upsetting ideas began to spread throughout the entire population. Before 1914 most people believed in Enlightenment ideas of progress, reason and the rights of individuals. Optimistic pre-World War I view was the result of significant progress of the past two centuries

5. Critics Critics of the pre-war world anticipated many of the post-war ideas. They rejected the general faith in progress and the power of the rational human mind.

6. Friedrich Nietzsche – 1844-1900 – Untimely Meditations (1873) – “Thus Spake Zarathustra” God is dead – “Will to Power” Ubermenschen (german for” superman”) – Argued: ever since Athens, the West had overemphasized rationality and stifled the authentic passions and animal instincts that drive human activity and true creativity.

7. Will to Power God is Dead Immorality Ubermensch (Hitler used this term to describe the Nazi idea of a biologically superior Aryan, master race) Philosophy

8. Henri Bergson – 1859-1941 – Immediate experience and intuition were as important as rational and scientific thinking

9. Georges Sorel 1847-1922 Syndicalism- a manifestation of anarchism Socialism Foreshadowed the Bolshevik Revolution/

10. Ludwig Wittgenstein 1889-1951 Logical Positivism (empiricism)— what we know about human life must be based on rational facts and direct observation Theology=useless Essay on Logical Philosophy – Focus on language/

11. Existentialism Took root in Continental countries after WWI Emphasized the loneliness and meaningless of human existence and the individuals need to come to terms with this situation Saw life as absurd, no inherent meaning Most existentialists were Atheists Shattering of beliefs in God, reason, and progress/

12. Jean-Paul Sartre 1905-1980 French existentialist “existence precedes essence”-no God-given timeless truths outside of individual existence Define self through actions Attracted to communism/

13. The Revival of Christianity As a response to these unsettling revolutionary ideas ordinary people turned to Christianity Christian existentialists- stressed human beings’ sinful nature, the need for faith, and the mystery of God’s forgiveness/

14. Soren Kierkegaard 1813-1855 Rediscovery of his work after WWI Argued: impossible for ordinary people to prove the existence of God, but not empty practice Sickness unto Death (1849)/

15. Karl Barth 1886-1968 Argued: humans imperfect, sinful creatures whose reason and will are hopelessly flawed God’s grace/

16. Gabriel Marcel 1887-1973 Answer to postwar “broken world”=Catholicism Denounced Anti- Semitism/

17. Other Leading Christian Intellectuals T.S. Eliot-Poet W.H. Auden-Poet Evelyn Waugh-novelist Aldous Huxley-novelist C.S. Lewis-writer Max Planck-physicist Cyril Joad-philosopher

18. “One began to believe in heaven because one believed in hell”- Graham Greene

19. The New Physics Challenging the belief in unchanging natural laws First step----atoms made up of smaller particles “Physics NO longer provided comforting truths about natural laws or optimistic answers about humanity’s place in an understandable world”/

20. Marie and Pierre Curie 1867-1934 1859-1906 Radium constantly emits subatomic particles and thus does not have a constant atomic weight./

21. Max Planck 1858-1947 1900-subatomic energy is emitted in uneven little spurts= “quanta” Questioned old beliefs/

22. Albert Einstein 1879-1955 Theory of Special Relativity- time and space are relative to the viewpoint of the observer and that only the speed of light is constant for all frames of reference in the universe. Unified an apparently infinite universe with the incredibly small, fast-moving subatomic world/

23. Theory of Relativity

24. Impact Manhattan Project New York Times Article (about Einstein)

25. Earnest Rutherford 1871-1937 “heroic age of physics”- 1920s 1919-atom can be split 1944-neutron identified ***fundamental to construction of the atomic bomb/

26. Werner Heisenberg 1901-1976 “uncertainty principle”- nature is unknowable and unpredictable Everything “Relative”- dependent on the observer’s frame of reference/

27. Sigmund Freud 1856-1939 Agreed with Nietzsche Interpretation after WWI- reflected and encouraged growing sexual experimentation, particularly among middle-class women “Civilization and Its Discontent” – Civilization was only possible when individuals renounced their irrational instinct in order to live peaceably in groups./

28. Freudian Psychology assumed a single, unified conscious mind processed sensory experiences in a rational and logical way. Reflects early 20 th century spirit ID- human unconscious Ego- rationalizing conscious mediates what a person can do Superego- ingrained moral values specify what a person should so ***Shattered the enlightenment view of rationality and progress***

29. 20 th Century Literature Influenced by pessimism, relativism, and alienation Viewpoint of single individual Focused on complexity and irrationality of the human mind/

30. Marcel Proust 1871-1922 Remembrance of Things Past (1913- 1927) – Discover inner most feelings

31. Stream-of-consciousness technique Relied on internal monologues to explore the psyche. *James Joyce- Ulysses – A gigantic riddle waiting to be unraveled Virginia Woolf-Jacob’s Room William Faulkner- The Sound and the Fury

32. William Faulkner

33. Virginia Woolf

34. James Joyce

35. Anti-Utopias Oswald Spengler – 1880-1936 – The Decline of the West T.S. Eliot – 1888-1965 – The Waste Land Franz Kafka – 1883-1924 – The Trial – The Castle – The Metamorphosis

36. Oswald Spengler

37. T.S. Elliot

38. Franz Kafka