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Modern Science and its Implications SSWH0. Time and Geography INTELLECTUAL Science is Changing • Science became worldview – Western universities – science more specialized – Scientific research got bigger budgets – Educated public believed in science • Biology – Darwin and The Origin of Species • Natural selection – slow evolution of all species from unknown ancestors • Mechanical explanation of variety in nature, evolution • Eliminated role of God or intelligent Creator – Darwin and The Descent of Man • Included humans in evolution model, conscience as survival mechanism • Did not explain “why” natural selection happened • Mendel explained this in principles of modern genetics Physics • Mach – Showed it was impossible to apply philosophy to physical matter – Substituted probability for Newtonian law • Roentgen – Discovered x-rays – Gave rise to experimentation in subatomic particles by Rutherford, Curie • Planck Wilhelm Röntgen – Quantum theory, revolutionized study of energy – Explained contradictory data about motion of subatomic particles • Einstein – Insisted that space and time form a continuum – Saw time as “fourth dimension” of space – General Theory of Relativity Albert Einstein Changes in Science • What differences from Newtonian physics? – Uncertainty – Relativity – Interchangeability of matter and energy • Scientists and laypeople – Discoveries made modern physics incomprehensible to most people – Widened gap between scientist and educated layperson – This became problem – scientists and politicians don’t understand each other or communicate well Astronomy • Technological advances: telescopes, radio devices, space vehicles • Greater knowledge about universe • Debate over origin, future of universe – Big Bang Theory • Creationists rejected scientific explanation; argue for Christian tradition of a Creator The Big Bang Theory Social Sciences and Psychology • Social sciences have human beings as subjects – Psychology, sociology, anthropology, economics, political science – Strongly affected by physical sciences • Psychology – Became important branch of medicine – Sigmund Freud founded psychoanalysis • Believed unconscious controls mental state • Rejected principle of rationality • Childhood events are root of mental problems – Carl Jung • Early collaborator with Freud, founded his own school • Emphasized religious symbolism, archetypes Sigmund Freud – Pavlov – founder of behaviorism • Rewards/ punishments can control behavior • James and Skinner carried ideas further Ivan Pavlov Carl Jung Anthropology – Treats humans as species rather than individuals – Indirect product of Darwin’s biology – Two varieties: physical and cultural – Paleoanthropology helps explain early Man Primate skull series Sociology – Compte and The Positive Philosophy • Laws of social behavior are just as knowable as those of physical behavior • Positivism – only empirical, measurable data are reliable – Particularly appealing to Americans: society can be changed by conscious human intervention Auguste Comte Sociology – Spencer and Social Darwinism • Ethics are evolutionary, competition is force of social progress • “Survival of fittest” • Powerful have used it to justify their power • Was a fashionable pseudophilosophy Herbert Spencer Malaise of 20thC Society • Psychology and physics contributed to insecurity, uncertainty • Traditional knowledge seen as insufficient, authority as incompetent • Cultural Relativism – European idea that whatever European should be standard for rest of the world – Today, more acceptance of multiple solutions to generic tasks – General abandonment today of traditional ethnocentrism RELIGIOUS Churches under Attack • From intellectuals, liberals, Marxists • Substantial effect on tithing, respect of clergy, attendance • Positivism was part of attack • Church got out of education • Religious belief no longer allowed as qualification for voting, holding office, etc. • Secularism was taken for granted as wave of the future Churches weren’t literally set on fire Christian Revival • Churches working for renewal • Fundamentalism strengthening in U.S. and England • Germany – Bismark attacked church in his Kulturkampf, but it emerged stronger than ever • Rerum novarum (papal letter) – Supported social justice for workers, poor – Denounced atheistic socialism – Gave Catholics guidelines for more liberal order • World War I hit all organized religions hard – Clergy denounced as pawns of government – Minority saw war as result of godless progressivism – Limited revival in 1920s Discussion Questions 1. Darwin’s theories of evolution and the survival of the fittest were vigorously rejected by organized religion, in much the same way that Copernicus and Galileo were attacked. Why? What was it about these ideas that threatened Christian teachings? (There is likely more than one reason.) In time, the astronomical theories were accepted by the Church, but Darwin’s concepts remain rejected by some denominations. Why have they not been accepted? Is it only a matter of time until they will be? 2. The rise of the social sciences came in the last half of the 19th century, focusing on human societies and behavior. History is generally not included as a social science, but rather as a branch of the humanities. Why? What is it about history per se which makes it not a social science? Is it better described as a social science or humanities discipline? Why?