Transcript Modern Science and its Implications

Modern Science and its Implications
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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?