20th Century Modernism
1. Modernism: attempt to reject old habits of thought.
a. Against Positivism: Positivism's belief in the scientific Brightness" of certain ideas made it blind to its own limits and bias.
b. Belief in infallible solutions only created inflexible attitudes which, transported into politics, ultimately brought on the bloody conflicts of WW I and WW II.
c. Time of decadence and loss of stable values.
2. Impact of WWI
3. End of 19th century: 
a. scientific rationalism, 
b. world as a machine, 
c. universe is rational, predictable. 
d. Mendeleev. Attraction of scientific method: promise of objective truth. 
e. Description of individual subjects in terms of collective statistical evidence.
4. Utopian socialism - envisioned perfect societies.
5. After WW I, re-examination of the basis of certainty, the systems of belief. This was also reflected in literature.
6. Bergson: Scientific rationalism was artificial. Reality is fluid. Life as it is actually experienced.
7. Freud
a. Sub-conscious and instinctual drives must be taken into consideration to understand man.
b. Human beings actually create (and modify) their images of self
c. Human beings create and modify their images of self through engaging in dialogue with others
d. Surrealists totally reverse Freud by declaring madness as an insight into larger reality instead of an illness to be cured.
8. Game-like nature of language. 
a. Language determines how we see the world. 
b. Language not an accurate tool for direct reference to reality. 
c. Endless networking of associations, in which communication is impossible.
9. Gestalt psychology: the meaning of individual phenomena was not to be found in microscopic analysis of separate pieces but rather in organized wholes.
10. Jung: collective unconscious - resemblances of world mythologies and figures.
11. Einstein: 
a. relativism, 
b. four-dimential continuum (space-time), 
c. not expressed in language. 
12. Eisenberg: measurements not exact, matter of approximation. 
13. People no longer find self-evident truths in nature.
14. Phenomenology: 
a. things as they appear; 
b. role of perception in establishing reality. 
c. All consciousness is consciousness of something. 
d. Reality is formed in a relationship between perceiver and perceived.
15. Heideger and Existentialism: 
a. questioned the meaning of existence in a world without pre-existing truths, values, or general laws.
b. Theater of the absurd: Human authenticity consists in choosing our actions at each point, avoiding bad faith of pretending that others are responsible for our choices. 
c. Condition of human beings: 
i. thrown into the world without any understanding of their fate.
ii. Does this mean an abdication of moral commitment?
16. Cultural parochialism
a. belief that there is only one correct view of the world - mine!
17. Expressionism, dadaism, Surrealism, Futurism - different ways of expressing the reality of the world.
18. Dadaism and Surrealism: 
a. Disgust for the traditional middle class values:
i. Patriotism
ii. Religion
iii. Morality
iv. rationalism. 
b. They blamed these for WW I.
19. Dadaism, Futurism:
a. absolute revolt against everything traditional
b. poetry-words placed together
c. pieces of art made from random objects; Liberate the unconscious.