Kenneth's Ch. 29 Outline Pt 1

Kenneth Li Euro Hist. Period 6th 3-13-08 Ch. 29 pg. 407-413 I. The Birth of Contemporary Western Thought 1) Thoughts for 20th century took place. i) Death of God was proclaimed. ii) Christianity suffered attack. 2) Political and humanitarian ideals of liberalism and socialism yielded to new, aggressive nationalism. i) By 1900 European intellectuals were more daring, but probably less certain and less optimistic. 3) Impact of advanced ideas of second half of 19th century didn’t remain limited to Europe. i) Took home ideas they had encountered, which they associated with modern society and politics. ii) Often saw application of such ideas, most particularly scientific ideas and technology as path to power and wealth and as weapons. II. The Prestige of Science 1) In 1850 the basic Newtonian picture of physical nature still prevailed. i) Nature was vast machine that operated according to mechanical principles. ii) John Dalton formulated modern theory of chemical composition. iii) During 1840s several independent researchers, arrived at concept of conservation of energy. 2) Principles of mechanism were extended to geology through work of Charles Lyell. 3) Mid-century physical world was thus regarded as rational, mechanical, and dependable. i) Moreover, almost all scientists believed their knowledge of nature demonstrated existence of God or supreme being. A. Darwin and Natural Selection 1) In 1859 Charles Darwin published The Origin of Species, which carried mechanical interpretation of physical nature into world of living things. i) Both Darwin and book have been much misunderstood. ii) Earlier writers had believed that evolution might occur; Darwin and Wallace explained how it could occur. 2) Drawing on Malthus, 2 scientists contended that seeds and living organisms come into existence in numbers. i) Operation required no guiding mind behind development and change in organic nature. ii) Only when work on heredity by Austrian monk Gregor Mendel received public attention after 1900.

3) Darwin’s and Wallace’s theory represented triumph of naturalistic explanation. i) Eyes not made for seeing according rational wisdom and purpose of God, but developed over time. ii) World was a realm of flux and change. 4) 1871 Darwin carried his work further. i) Darwin was hardly first person to treat human beings as animals, but arguments brought greater plausibility to point of view. ii) Darwin’s thought neither origin nor character of humankind on earth required existence of God for its explanation. 5) By 1900 evolution was widely accepted by scientists, but not yet Darwin’s mechanism of natural selection. i) Yet role of natural selection is still controversial within scientific community. B. Auguste Comte and Intellectual Development 1) French philosopher Auguste Comte developed a philosophy of human intellectual development that regarded science as its culmination. i) In final or positive stage, nature was explained in terms of action of divinities of spirits. ii) Comte though that positive laws of social behavior could be discovered in same fashion. 2) Comte exerted only modest influence within Europe itself except among small circles of intellectuals. i) Hoped to use ideas of science to challenge continued presence of slavery in Brazil. ii) At turn of century many people associated with business, technology, railway building and military saw themselves guided by Comtean ideas. iii) Those who wanted their countries to become modern but feared disorder turned to Comte’s thought. C. Herbert Spencer, Thomas Henry Huxley, and Social Darwinism 1) Theories of ethics were modeled on science during the last half of century. i) Phrase “survival of the fittest” predated Darwin and reflected and competitive outlook of classical economies. 2) Most famous advocate of evolutionary ethics was Herbert Spencer. i) Concept would be applied to justify not aiding poor and working class or dominating colonial people. ii) Spencer’s ideas proved very attractive to business groups in United States. 3) One of Chief opponents of such thinking was Thomas Henry Huxley. i) Struggle in nature held no ethical implications except to demonstrate how human beings shouldn’t behave. 4) Genuinely believed that they had discovered all principles that might be discovered. i) Although, a much more complicated picture of nature developed, pursuit of science and technology.

ii) By 19th century, political leaders around world who wished their nations to resist European inroads or who wished to see their peoples. iii) By 1905 Japan thought this pursuit of technological power was able to defeat navy of Russian. III. Christianity and the Church Under Siege 1) 19th century was one of most difficult periods in history of organized Christian churches. i) Yet churches still made considerable headway at popular level, and thousands of European and American missionaries labored in nonWestern world. A. The Intellectual Attack 1) Intellectual attack on Christianity challenged its historical credibility, scientific accuracy and pronounced morality. i) Historical scholarship of 19th century brought new issues to the fore. 2) In 1835 David Friederich Strauss published Life of Jesus, in which he questioned whether Bible provided any genuine historical evidence about Jesus i) Other skeptical “lives of Jesus” were written and published elsewhere. 3) Science also undermined Christianity. i) Charles Lyell suggested that earth was much older than biblical records contended. ii) Darwin’s theory cast doubt on the Creation. iii) Anthropologists, psychologists, and sociologists suggested that religion itself and religious sentiments were just natural phenomena. 4) Other intellectuals questioned morality of Christianity. i) Much more important, the moral character of Old Testament God came under fire. ii) Also wondered about morality of New Testament God, who would sacrifice for His own satisfaction. 5) These widespread skeptical intellectual currents seem to have directly influenced only upper levels of educated society. i) Yet they created climate in which Christianity lost much of intellectual respectability. ii) More and more people found that they could lead lives with little or no references to Christianity. iii) Whole generations of urban institution or of Christianity as religious faith.