Download Toward the Modern Consciousness

Toward the
Modern
Consciousness
Ch. 13 Section 4
Review
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New kinds of cities
Four new classes
Changes for women
Changes in education
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
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
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
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
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
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!
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
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