Transcript Age of Anxiety

AGE OF ANXIETY
Essential Questions
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Why did doubts emerge concerning the belief in
human progress during the 1920s?
Who were the major thinkers and works which
influenced the search for meaning in post World
War I Europe?
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18th & 19th centuries marked by an
acknowledgment to science and reason
Nietzsche
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The West overemphasized rationality
 Conventional
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values suffocated creativity
On the Genealogy of Morals
 “God
is dead” – the West had killed Christianity and
that left people disoriented and depressed
 Only a few ubermenschen – supermen could reorder
the world and become true heroes
The Philosophy Revolt – 3 Paths
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Logical Positivism
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Existentialism
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Revival Christianity
Logical Positivism
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Sees meaning in only those beliefs that can be
empirically proven – all else is nonsense
Ludwig Wittgenstein – Austrian philosopher
 “Of
what one cannot speak, of the one must keep silent”
Existentialism
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Stresses the meaninglessness of existence and the
importance of the individual in searching for moral
values in an uncertain world.
Jean-Paul Sartre – French philosopher
 “existence
precedes essence” – your actions give life
meaning
 There is a ethical component suggesting one should be
engaged in the world
Revival of Christianity
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Soren Kierkegaard – Swiss Danish theologian
 Impossible
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to prove God but must take a “leap of faith”
Gabriel Marcel – leading Catholic existential
 Religion
provided hope in a “broken world”
 Denounced anti-Semitism and smoothed relations with
non-Catholics
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Religious participation on the rise 1920-1950