The materials given here by Bill Stifler are supplemental to the material in Leonard & McClure. @Bill Stifler, 2005, 2016.
Century of Change
In the Western world, the 19th century began with the Romantic period, continued through the Victorian age, and saw the beginnings of the modern age. It was a century that saw the beginnings of the rapid changes of modern life, and it was a century torn between an optimistic future of unending Progress and a darker apocalyptic future that prefigured the coming World Wars of the 20th century. The Industrial Revolution allowed for the rapid creation and dissemination of manufactured goods. Some portions of Christianity believed that Christians would usher in the Kingdom of Christ, creating the perfect society where Christ could come and rule. The United States believed its "Manifest Destiny" was to expand from coast to coast, and to have greater influence in the Western hemisphere.
But there was also a dark side. The Civil War, in many respects was the first modern war, a war where technology was used to significantly increase the level of destruction, and a war where civilians were deliberately targeted. French writer Jules Verne wrote novels depicting scientific geniuses who were also despots, Captain Nemo with his submarine, the Nautilus; Robur the Conqueror with his airship. People in the late 19th century wrote of the "Coming War," which became the Great War, the "war to end all wars," so-called because it had been so horrific. Instead, the Great War became known as World War I after the second World War broke out.
The Great Divide
A significant shift occurred in the Western world's view of humanity. Christianity had suggested that man, though fallen, was made in the image of God, made only "a little lower than the angels" and "crowned . . . with glory and honour" (KJV, Psalm 8.5). Calvin, however, in his attempts to create a systematic and rational Christianity, had argued that humanity was totally depraved, incapable of any good, the children of Satan, lost without the special redeeming efforts of God. The idea of humans as totally depraved, by the 19th century, led to a view of humanity as dethroned from its place of "specialness," and people were seen as one with nature, creatures rather than divinity. This shift in thinking underlies the principle influences on the Modern period.
Charles Darwin, Karl Marx, Sigmund Freud: The Great Struggle
Wikipedia.
While the theories of these three men lay in different fields, biology, political science, and the new field of psychology, all three shared a common ground which can be stated in the following syllogism:
Humanity is a part of nature.
Nature is in a state of constant turmoil.
Therefore, humanity is in a state of constant turmoil.
Darwin: The Struggle for Survival
During his travels on the H.M.S. Beagle, Charles Darwin formulated his theories about evolution which he eventually published in On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection (1859) and The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex (1871) ("Charles Robert Darwin"). In these works, he argued that species, including humans, evolve through a means of natural selection, and that it is this "change" that explains the existence of the varied life on earth and not a special creation of each type of creature ("Charles Robert Darwin"). Natural selection rather than divine selection explained, in Darwin's view, the diversity of life. By natural selection, Darwin meant that, in any environment with limited resources, those creatures best adapted to survive in that environment will pass on their survival skills to future generations, replacing those which are less well adapted to survive. On the Galapagos Islands, Darwin had seen that, for finches on one island, the only food source was a large nut, requiring a large beak to crack it open. On another island, the only food source for finches was a thistle seed best reached by finches with thin beaks. The limited resources on each island, for Darwin, explained why the finches on the first island had much larger beaks than the finches on the second island. Darwin believed that this mechanism could explain the diversity of all species, including humans. The importance of this to the scientific study of evolution was that, for the first time, scientists had a mechanism to explain biological changes that could be tested and verified.
Marx: The Struggle Between Societies
| Privileged | Marginalized |
|---|---|
| Male | Female |
| White | Black |
| Rich | Poor |
| Western | Non-Western |
| Civilized | Primitive |
Karl Marx argued that "institutions shape ideas" and define history. Marx saw in his society an economic struggle between the proletariat (the common laborer and working class) and the bourgeoisie (or ruling class). Marx believed that this struggle would continue until all held everything in common, and a new classless society evolved ("Karl Marx"). While Marx's political system for resolving the conflict has not worked, his beliefs have led to a useful interpretation of history based on economic strife and a conflict between ideologies (a system of ideas), the binary oppositions between privileged ideologies and those which are marginalized.
An example of Marx's perfect society was portrayed in the TV series Star Trek: Next Generation. There was no paymaster on the U.S.S. Enterprise. Every member of the crew worked to the best of his or her ability, and every member had access to whatever he or she needed. Captain Picard could have his cup of "tea, Earl Grey, hot." Counselor Troi could have a "chocolate sundae, double chocolate, double nuts" after a particularly strenuous day. An episode titled "The Neutral Zone" (Season 1, episode 25, 16 May 1988) involved the discovery of a cryo chamber with three 20th century humans aboard. One is a financier whose first concern was the status of his financial accounts. His questions about Wall Street, banks, and finances were met by incredulity among the crew as they explained that none of those things existed in the Federation any more. However, even in Star Trek, Marx's perfect world failed as conflicts arose between the Federation and other space faring people. This very episode included a confrontation with the Romulans (DeCandido, "Rewatch: The Neutral Zone").
Freud: The Struggle Within
Based on his work with hysterical female patients, Freud came to believe that "human personality is governed by forces called 'instincts' or 'drives.'" These natural desires were the same drives that motivated other creatures:
The desire for food
The desire for survival
The desire to procreate
. . . and so on.
("Sigmund Freud," par. 5)
Freud believed that the human psyche had three divisions: the id, ego, and superego.
| id | superego | ego |
|---|---|---|
| The biologically based and largely unconscious "drives" which operate according to the "pleasure principle" ("Sigmund Freud," par. 5) | The socially defined and critical conscience which imposes rules to inhibit the id ("Sigmund Freud," par. 5) | The rational self which balances the forces of the id and the superego and operates according to the "reality principle" ("Sigmund Freud," par. 5) |
The desires of the id, when fulfilled, provide pleasure (sexual desire assuaged by sexual activity leads to satisfaction). The superego, however, attempts to restrict how the id satisfies its desires (don't have sex outside of marriage). Freud believed that the ego rationally decides between the desires of the id and the restrictions of the superego by examining the actual circumstances and choosing whether to satisfy the id or the superego based on rational analysis of those circumstances. Many people interpret the id as representing evil and the superego as representing good. But Freud sees the id as representing the desires and instincts of nature, that all creatures possess, while the superego represents the restrictions imposed by society (social institutions: home, school, government, religion).
In the Star Trek episode "The Enemy Within," a transporter malfunction creates two versions of Captain Kirk. One version appears gray, soft-spoken, obsessed with doing the right thing and paralyzed by the possibility of doing the wrong thing (superego). The second Kirk is wild-eyed, florid, focused on fighting or chasing Yeoman Rand (id). In the end, the two Kirks must be reintegrated. As Spock points out, the id Kirk has all of his passion while the superego Kirk has his intellect and compassion. Combined, the id and superego allow Kirk to make the necessary decisions as Captain (the ego) (DeCandido, "Rewatch: The Enemy Within").
Albert Einstein and Ferdinand de Saussure: The Problem of Indeterminacy
Einstein and Quantum Mechanics: Relativity and the Uncertainty Principle
Following Einstein, a number of scientists, including Werner Heisenberg, formulated the theory of quantum mechanics. In quantum mechanics, certain physical properties of the universe can only be conclusively known when the value of other properties remain uncertain. For instance, if a scientist chooses to determine the position of a subatomic particle, the velocity of the same particle can only be approximated. By analogy, imagine a rapidly spinning fan blade with three white blades and one black. If the blades are spinning fast enough, all four blades appear as a gray blur, and the black blade cannot be distinguised from the three white blades. However, with a camera with a fast enough shutter speed, it is possible to take a picture of the spinning blades and capture the exact location of the blades as though they were standing still. However, from the picture, there is no way to tell which way the blades are turning.
Einstein's theory of relativity and Heisenberg's "Uncertainty Principle" suggested that the old classical view of the "objective" scientist was flawed. Relativism and uncertainty became the watchwords of the 20th century.
Where previous periods had elevated one approach to truth above others, the modern period questioned all avenues to truth and determined truth situationally rather than according to some objective, absolute standard. The focus of philosophy became epistemology, the study of how we know what we know.
Saussure: The Web of Meaning
Saussure argued that the proper study of language involved studying the relationships between words rather than the words themselves. His school of thought became known as structuralism. The proper study of language, then, required studying each part in its relation to every other part within the system. Words on a page are a set of characters (sign) that establish a connection between a "sound" and an idea or concept (signified). As a result, "words" do not mean anything. They are signs for meaning. And the meaning of any concept or idea is spread out over the entire field of meaning, understood completely only by understanding everything it isn't.
In this way, structuralism redefined text, shifting attention away from the words of the text, the apparent "surface meaning," to the underlying patterns within the text, the "deep structures." For structuralists, these underlying patterns, these relationships between words, are common to various kinds of literature, and the individual words in the text only have meaning in relation to these patterns (Eagleton 95-6; Stifler). Meaning lies in the patterns, not in the words.
With structuralism, the idea of an objective written standard of truth became suspect. The absolute authority of sacred texts was now questioned, whether a religious text like the Bible or a political text like the U.S. Constitution. Determinations of meaning were increasingly seen as situational and subjective rather than as objective and absolute.
The ideas of these thinkers became the foundation for the study of myths in the 19th and 20th centuries as well as influencing the philosophies and cultures of the modern world.