Download G. Anti-Semitism and the Birth of Zionism

Outline: 20th Century Intellectualism
Kagan 864-880
Weber 514-516
*The last quarter of the 19th century and the first decade of the 20th century constituted the
beginning of modern western and European thought.
*Philosophers, scientists, psychologists, and artists began to portray physical reality, human
nature, and human society in ways different from those of the past. In particular, their new
concepts challenged the major presuppositions of mid-19th century science, rationalism,
liberalism, and bourgeois (middle-class) morality.
IV.
Toward a 20th-Century Frame of Mind
A. Science: The Revolution in Physics--20th century science challenged the
mechanistic models of the late-19th century. Ultimately, scientists began to realize
that there was still much to discover about the physical universe.
1. New Scientific Developments
a. Ernst Mach (The Science of Mechanics—1883): Urged that scientists
consider their concepts descriptive not of the physical world but of the
sensations experienced by the scientific observer. Scientists could describe
only the sensations, not the physical world that underlay the sensations.
b. X-rays and Radiation: challenged the notion that science was complete
1) Wilhelm Roentgen
a) discovered x-rays in 1895
b) form of energy that penetrated various opaque materials
2) J.J. Thompson
a) formulated the theory of the electron
b) the interior world of the atom had become a new area for human
exploration, which continues to this day
3) Ernest Rutherford
a) explained the cause of radiation through the disintegration of atoms
b) speculated on the immense store of energy present in the atom
4) Theories of Quantum Energy, Relativity, and Uncertainty
a) Max Planck: in 1900, pioneered the articulation of the quantum
theory of energy
b) Albert Einstein
--in 1905, he published his first epoch-making papers on relativity
--contended that time and space exist not separately, but rather as a
combined continuum
c) Werner Heisenberg: in 1927, set forth the uncertainty principle,
according to which the behavior of subatomic particles is a matter of
statistical probability rather than of exactly determinable cause and
effect
2. Results of 20th century Scientific Discoveries
a. much that only fifty years earlier had seemed certain and unquestionable
about the physical universe had now become ambiguous
b. science became too mathematically complex for the layperson--it could never
again be “popularized”
c. through applied technology and further research in chemistry, physics, and
medicine, science affected daily living more than ever before
d. government funding became commonplace because of the economic
progress, military security, and health improvements associated with
scientific success
B. Literature: Realism and Nationalism—Between 1850 and 1914, the moral
certainties of the learned and middle-class Europeans underwent changes no less
radical than their concepts of the physical universe.
1. Realist movement: portrayed the hypocrisy, brutality, and dullness that underlay
bourgeois life and society, but did not offer solutions to these societal ills
a. Gustave Flaubert
1) wrote Madame Bovary (1857):
2) considered to be the first genuinely realistic novel
3) story of a woman’s hapless search for love
4) portrayed life without heroism, purpose, or even simple civility
b. Emile Zola
1) considered the founder of the realist movement
2) focused on topics such as prostitution, organized labor, and war
c. Henrik Ibsen
1) carried realism into the dramatic presentation of domestic life
2) A Doll’s House (1879)
a) story of Nora’s search for independence from her domineering
husband
b) criticized the narrow-minded middle class
d. George Bernard Shaw: attacked many of the values and ideals associated
with romanticism
2. Modernism: while critical of middle-class society and accepted morality,
modernists were not overly concerned with social issues…
a. were concerned with the portrayal of the aesthetic or beautiful
b. touched all areas of arts, including fine art and music
c. e.g., Picasso and Cubism
C. Philosophy: During the second half of the century, philosophers began to question
the adequacy of rational thinking to address the human situation.
1. Friedrich Nietzsche: he was wholly at odds with the predominant values of the
age (e.g., Christianity, democracy, nationalism, rationality, science, and
progress)
2. The Birth of Tragedy (1872)
a. urged that the non-rational aspects of human nature were as important and
noble as the rational characteristics
b. insisted on the positive function of instinct and ecstasy in human life
3. questioned morality
a. prevented humankind from achieving life on a heroic level
b. forbade too much of human nature from fulfilling and expressing itself
D. The Birth of Psychoanalysis: example of 20th century intellectuals’ desire to probe
beneath the surface of public appearance…What lies beneath the smooth, calm
surfaces of hard atoms, respectable families, rationality, and social relationships?
1. Sigmund Freud
a. forced a reconsideration of the role of rationality and reason in human
motivation
b. associated many aspects of human behavior to past experiences (human
unconscious)
c. saw human beings as sexual creatures from birth through adulthood
1) questioned the concept of childhood innocence
2) portrayed sexuality as one of the bases of mental order and disorder
d. Freud’s Concern with Dreams: believed that the seemingly irrational content
of dreams must have a reasonable, scientific explanation
1) dreams allow unconscious wishes, desires, and drives that had been
excluded from everyday conscious life and experience to enjoy freer play
in the mind
2) ultimately, unconscious drives and desires contribute to conscious
behavior (The Interpretation of Dreams—1900)
2. Freud’s Later Thought
a. the mind is an arena of struggle and conflict between three entities:
1) id: consists of amoral, irrational, driving instincts for sexual gratification
2) ego: mediates between the impulses of the id and the asceticism of the
superego
3) superego: embodies the external moral imperatives and expectations
imposed on the personality by society and culture
b. because of Freud, human beings were seen as attaining rationality rather than
merely exercising it
E. Retreat from Rationalism in Politics: During the 19th century, liberals and
socialists agreed that rational principles could guide society and politics. Rational
analysis could discern the problems of society and prepare solutions. They generally
felt that once given the vote, individuals would behave according to their rational
political self-interest. 20th century political scientists and sociologists painted
politics as frequently irrational.
1. Max Weber
a. impressed by the role of reason in human society
1) regarded the emergence of rationalism throughout society as the major
development of human history
2) bureaucratic organization
a) saw bureaucratization as the basic feature of modern social life
b) involved the extreme division of labor
c) each individual began to fit himself or herself into a particular small
role in much larger organizations
d) people subsequently derived their own self-images and sense of
personal worth from their position in these organizations
2. Theorists of Collective Behavior
a. did not think the individual or rationality was dominant
b. Gustave LeBon: in crowd situations, rational behavior was abandoned
c. Georges Sorel (Reflections on Violence—1908)
1) people did not pursue rationally perceived goals
2) instead, they were led to action by collectively shared ideals
d. instinct, habit and affections (not reason) directed social behavior
e. collective groups impacted political decisions, not the individual (as liberals
once thought)
F. Racism: In the late 19th century, race emerged as a single, dominant explanation of
the history and character of large groups of people.
1. Late-18th century scholars postulated the existence of an ancient race called the
Aryans (ancient race who spoke the original language from which the rest is
derived)
2. Count Arthur de Gobineau (1816-1882)
a. in his Essay on the Inequality of the Human Races (1853-1854) he claimed
that the troubles of Western Civilization were the result of the long
degeneration of the original white Aryan race
b. claimed that the Aryan race had been unwisely intermarried with the inferior
yellow and black races
3. Anthropologists applied the concept of survival of the fittest to races and nations
4. Houston Stewart Chamberlain (1855-1927)
a. Foundations of the Nineteenth Century (1899)
b. championed the concept of biological determinism through race
c. believed that through genetics the human race could be improved and that a
superior race could be developed
d. brought anti-Semitism to prominence in racial theory
5. Late-Century Nationalism
a. from the 1870’s onward, nationalism became a movement with mass support,
well-financed organizations, and political parties
b. nationalism was redefined in terms of race and blood
c. nationalism of this aggressive, racist variety would prove to be the most
powerful ideology of the early 20th century
G. Anti-Semitism and the Birth of Zionism
1. During the last third of the century, as finance capitalism changed the economic
structure of Europe, many non-Jewish Europeans pressured by the changes
became hostile toward the Jewish community
a. developed in part from the atmosphere of racial thought and the retreat from
rationality in politics
1) contributed to the belief that no matter to what extent Jews assimilated
themselves and their families into the culture of their country, their
“Jewishness”—and thus their alleged danger to the society—would
remain
2) the problem of race was not in the character but in the blood of the Jew
b. religious anti-Semitism had existed since the Middle Ages
2. Zionism (1896)
a. response to this new, rabid outbreak of anti-Semitism
b. movement to found a separate Jewish state
c. its founder was Theodor Herzl (1860-1904)—The Jewish State
V.
Women and Modern Thought: Feminists at the turn of the century demanded a
revolution of gender roles. They urged equal treatment under the law, and
contended that the relationship of men and women within the marriage and the
family required rethinking.
A. Women leaders at this time set the feminist agenda for the 20th century
B. Yet, the new ideas and intellectual movements produced at best, mixed results for
women.
C. Within the often radical new ways of thinking about the world, views of women
remained remarkably unchanged.