The Industrial Revolution - which had already begun in the 18th century and then spread and accelerated in the last quarter of the 19th century - changed the way of life fundamentally for large parts of the population in Europe. The machine started to become the controlling factor in people's lives: in fact, it seemed that people were starting to become 'Slaves of the Machine' at that time - as they would later also become Slaves of the [big machineries of the rapidly growing] Corporations.
Since labor was cheap, those who found work in the factories were exploited to their physical and psychological limits and beyond. Adults and children alike were not only forced to spend long hours performing repetitive, mindless tasks (the invention of the light bulb made it now possible to extend work hours into the evening year round), they also lost their former connectedness with the natural world by being forced to live in overcrowded cities with awful living conditions.
What these living and work conditions looked like, becomes very clear in the following documentary that gives the children of the revolution a voice:
Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87eVOpbcoVo
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_zJeDKE9vI
Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJAr9gPyvms
The Industrial Revolution did not only tear people away from their rural communities - and in most cases even from their families - but also put a sudden end to their formerly cyclical lifestyle that had been in harmony with the seasons and natural body rhythms for activity, rest, and sleep. Instead of living healthy natural lives, children and adults alike were now also subjected to what George Woodcock called "the Tyranny of the Clock." The permanent physical exhaustion caused by 14-hour long work-shifts, the feeling of social uprootedness, and the constant struggle for the means necessary for basic survival - as well as the new alienated work experience - led to bewilderment and disintegration of all former truths, traditions, and values, as well as to a loss of the experience of a meaningful life.
In a world where machines reigned and degraded humans to subservient particles of some unknown power that controlled everything, nothing made sense any more and nobody could be trusted. Life in such a world became void of any meaning other than sheer survival of the strongest and fittest. Education and other "leisurely" activities, such as reading, writing, music, sports, or arts, were only possible for people who happened to belong to the higher classes.
Philosophers, scientists, writers, and artists of that time - even if they were not part of the working class themselves - saw and felt the effects of the Industrial Revolution everywhere. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels analyzed the situation in The Capital and tried to encourage the working class to take control over the means of production and thus regain a certain amount of independence. Herbert Spencer and Charles Darwin came up with their ideas of the "survival of the fittest" and Friedrich Nietzsche concluded "God is dead."
When the power of machines was added to traditional warfare techniques, the escalation of violence, destruction, brutality, and horror in the two World Wars (WW1: 1914 to 1918; WW2: 1939-1945) was more than most people could handle psychologically and led to a fundamental distrust not only in a benevolent, meaningful universe but also in civilization itself.
Not only philosophers but artists as well were looking for new values and new forms of thinking that might be better able to express the new life: Impressionism, Expressionism, Fauvism, Cubism, Futurism, Dadaism, Surrealism - and, of course, ultimately Modernism - are some attempts to answer the crisis.
Here some of the names of some of the important philosophers and other thinkers of the 19th and early 20th century:
Georg Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831):
philosopher & cultural critic
Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860):
philospher
most influential work: The World as Will and Representation
Auguste Compte (1798-1857)
Ludwig Feuerbach (1804-1872)
philosopher and anthropologist
most influential work: The Essence of Christianity
John Stuart Mill (1806-1873)
Charles Darwin (1809-1882):
biologist or "Naturalist"
most influential work: On the Origin of Species
Soren Kierkegaard (1813-1855)
philosopher and cultural critic
most important contribution: forerunner of Existentialism
Karl Marx (1818-1883):
philosopher and social scientist, economist, and political reformer
most influential work: The Communist Manifesto and The Capital (in collaboration with Friedrich Engels)
Friedrich Nietzche (1844-1900):
philosopher and cultural critic
most influential ideas: dichotomy between Apollo & Dionysus, death of god, will to power
Sigmund Freud (1856-1939):
founding father of psychoanalysis & cultural critic
Influential in particular: his research in the field of the unconscious mind and his theory about dreams
Henri Luis Bergson (1859-1941):
philosopher and writer
key idea: creative revolution
Carl Jung (1875-1961):
founder of analytical psychology & writer & visual artist & philosopher
most important: his work about the collective unconscious & his theory of archetypes
Albert Einstein (1879-1955):
theoretical physicist and philosopher
most important contributions: discovery of the photo-electric effect (with its influence on quantum physics) and the theory of relativity
T.S. Eliot (1888-1965)
poet
most famous works: "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," "The Hollow Men," "The Waste Land," "Four Quartets"
Although only Sigmund Freud is represented on our official course syllabus, it makes sense to understand his ideas in the context of his time, in particular in the context of the ideas that were discussed during his life time. So please keep the other thinkers of his time and their contributions in the back of your mind when you read Freud's Civilization and Its Discontent (which was published in 1929).
For further information about Freud, please click on the links below:
! Introduction to Freud's Theory of Human Nature (in Comparison to Marx's Theory):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fd1jOQ7RjJ0&feature=related
! Illustrated Introduction to Freud's Theory about the Id, Ego, and Superego
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mkin1FhojCo&feature=related
! Introduction to Freud's Theory of Dreams: 4 parts
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lig53eW2ptg&feature=related
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbmgcUtup1A
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TJUjZpUYbE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_L1lCyK5ek
Short Introduction to Freud and his Theories about Sexual Development:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_raJfYR5AY8
Open Yale University Introduction to Freud:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7emS3ye3cVU&feature=relmfu
More information about Freud's Contemporaries:
Carl Jung:
Short into to his main ideas:
http://www.isapzurich.com/index.php/lang-en/about-us/key-concepts.html
! Documentary about his theories and work:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_L1lCyK5ek
Short Clips about Jung's Ideas about Anima, Animus, and Archetypes:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjRQbJPULx4&feature=fvwrel
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZN47s0mPfRU&feature=related
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GaoYFIoKs8M
Talk by Jung:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O18WALGq4C0&feature=related
Please post your comments about these 19th and early 20th Century thinkers here!
Thank you,
gudrun
PS: If a link doesn't work, please copy and paste into your browser. Please feel also free to search for more information yourself! You can either use a regular search engine (such as Google) if you prefer general-interest approaches to the topic or Google Scholar or one of the library catalogues if you prefer more academic information!
