Toward the Modern Consciousness

1. Toward the Modern Consciousness Ch. 13 Section 4

2. Review • New kinds of cities • Four new classes • Changes for women • Changes in education

3. Charles Darwin • 1859 – published On the Origin of the Species • Organic Evolution – each kind of plant and animal had evolved over a long period of time from earlier simpler forms of life • Natural selection – w/i a species nature selects the organisms that are more adaptable to the environment than others • Those that are naturally selected reproduce and survive  the “survival of the fittest” • The fit survive and pass on their traits that allowed them to survive until eventually a new separate species emerges • The unfit do not survive, they die out

4. Charles Darwin • 1871 – published The Descent of Man • Argued that human beings had animal origins and were not an exception to the rule of evolution • Many condemned Darwin for denying God’s role in creation • Eventually many grew to accept his theory

5. New Science • Charles Lyell – 1830 publishes The Principles of Geology • Offers evidence of the age of the earth • Upset many people – seems to contradict the Bible • John Dalton – 1869 develops the Atomic Theory • Demonstrates how all matter is made up of tiny particles called atoms • From this theory a Russian Chemist will develop a table of atomic weights • The Periodic Table

6. New Physics • Marie Curie – discovered that an element gave off energy (radiation) that came from w/i the atom • Atoms are not hard material bodies but small active worlds • Albert Einstein – new view of the universe • 1905 – Theory of Relativity • Space and time are not absolute but are relative to the observer • Matter is nothing but another form of energy • Led to an understanding of the energy contained w/i an atom  leads to creation of the atomic bomb

7. Sigmund Freud • 1900 – published Interpretation of Dreams • Human behavior is determined by past experiences and the unconscious mind • Painful and unsettling experiences were hidden from a person’s conscious mind • These hidden feeling influence b/h throughout our lives • Repression of our painful experiences b/g in childhood • Freud developed psychoanalysis to deal with repressed experiences in our unconscious minds

8. Sigmund Freud • Psychoanalysis – modern day therapy • A therapist and patient explore deep into the patient’s memory • By doing this they hope to retrace the chain of repressed thoughts all the way back to their childhood origins • If the patient’s conscious mind could be made aware of the unconscious and repressed experiences the patient could be healed • This is still used today!

9. Social Darwinism • Early 1900’s – Darwin’s theory of natural selection was applied in a radical and racist manner • Social progress came from the struggle for survival • The “fit” advanced while the weak declined • Business men used this theory to explain their successes and the failure of the poor • The strong and fit had risen to the top and b/c rich; while the weak, stupid, and lazy had fallen by the wayside

10. Social Darwinism • This theory was also applied to nations • Nationalists insisted that nations were in competition to survive and flourish • Germany took this idea to heart • Many in Germany b/g to b/l that modern day Germans were the only pure successors of the Aryans • Aryans – original creators of Western culture • Jews were singled out as the racial enemy who were trying to destroy the Aryan race