The Age of Progress and Modernity Chapter Notes | AP European History - Grade 9 PDF Download

Introduction

The 19th century was a transformative period for European intellectual thought, building on the Enlightenment’s legacy and branching into diverse movements. This chapter notes explores the shift from rationalism to Romanticism, Positivism, Realism, Naturalism, and Modernism, alongside scientific advancements like Darwinism and Einstein’s theories. These developments reshaped societal views, challenged traditional norms, and set the intellectual foundation for the 20th century.

Philosophical Approaches and Intellectual Movements

The Enlightenment Legacy

Before examining 19th-century intellectual movements, it is essential to recognize the Enlightenment as the foundational influence on subsequent thought. The Enlightenment prioritized reason, rationality, and scientific inquiry, advocating that human progress could be achieved through the application of knowledge and scientific principles.

• Key Figures: Philosophers such as John Locke, Voltaire, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau promoted political, social, and intellectual reforms grounded in reason and natural law.
• Impact: The Enlightenment set the stage for the French Revolution and the emergence of liberalism and secularism in Europe, questioning the authority of traditional institutions like monarchies and the Church.

Romanticism and its Reaction Against the Enlightenment

In response to the Enlightenment’s focus on reason, Romanticism arose in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, emphasizing emotion, individuality, and the beauty of nature. Romantic thinkers and artists rejected the Enlightenment’s rational, orderly perspective, embracing personal expression and the sublime.

• Key Themes: Nature, emotion, and the irrational were central to Romanticism, as seen in the works of poets like William Wordsworth and Lord Byron, and artists like Eugène Delacroix.
• Philosophical Impact: Romanticism influenced political ideologies, particularly nationalism, by idealizing the folk and common people as embodiments of national identity.

Positivism and Scientific Developments

Positivism: The Science of Society

In the early 19th century, Positivism emerged as a philosophy that valued empirical observation and scientific reasoning as the only valid sources of knowledge. Auguste Comte, a leading Positivist, argued that human society and its structures could be studied and enhanced using scientific methods, similar to the natural sciences.

• Key Concepts:
  • Scientific Analysis of Society: Positivism applied scientific techniques to social phenomena, seeking to understand and address societal issues through data and observation.
  • Rejection of Metaphysics: Positivists dismissed abstract speculation, such as theological or philosophical theorizing, prioritizing observable facts and laws.

Darwinism and Its Impact on Science and Society

Charles Darwin’s Theory of Natural Selection, presented in On the Origin of Species (1859), profoundly transformed biological science and intellectual thought by explaining evolution through natural selection, where the most adapted individuals survive and reproduce.

• Key Ideas:
  • Evolution: Species develop over time through the accumulation of advantageous traits that improve survival.
  • Natural Selection: Organisms with traits better suited to their environment are more likely to survive and pass those traits to their offspring.
• While Darwin’s work focused on nature, its implications extended to human society, leading to the misapplication of his ideas in Social Darwinism, which used his principles to justify social inequalities and imperialism.

The Rise of Realism and Naturalism

Realism: Depicting the Harsh Realities of Life

Realism emerged as an intellectual and artistic movement in reaction to Romanticism, aiming to portray life without idealization or embellishment, often highlighting the challenging realities of modern society.

• Key Features:
  • Centered on everyday life, including the struggles of the working class and the difficulties of industrialization.
  • Critiqued the romanticized perspectives of earlier movements.
• Impact:
  • In literature and art, Realism addressed issues like poverty, industrial labor, and social disparities.
  • Émile Zola, a French novelist, became a leading figure in Realism, using his works to expose societal issues of his era.

Naturalism: A Scientific Approach to Human Life

Building on Realism, Naturalism adopted a more scientific perspective on human life, emphasizing observation, experimentation, and the roles of environment and heredity in shaping behavior. Influenced by contemporary scientific advances, Naturalists rejected romanticized portrayals of life.

• Key Features:
  • Focused on the scientific study of human life.
  • Explored how environment, heredity, and social conditions influence human behavior.
  • Rejected idealized depictions, aiming to reveal stark truths about society.
• Impact:
  • Naturalism contributed to critiques of societal structures and highlighted the struggles of the lower classes.
  • Émile Zola and other writers used Naturalism to address social problems such as alcoholism, labor exploitation, and political corruption.

The Shift to Modernism: Relativism and the Rejection of Objective Knowledge

In the late 19th century, intellectual thought shifted from the optimistic, rational worldview of earlier centuries to one marked by relativism, uncertainty, and modernism. Modernist thinkers questioned the notion of objective knowledge, embracing the subjective and irrational aspects of human experience.

Modernism in Philosophy and Culture

Modernism developed as a reaction against the certainties of prior intellectual traditions, emphasizing innovation, experimentation, and self-awareness. Modernists rejected conventional artistic forms and values, seeking novel ways to express human experience.

• Key Figures:
  • Friedrich Nietzsche: A German philosopher who argued that traditional rationality stifled human creativity and instincts. Nietzsche’s declaration, “God is dead,” challenged society’s moral and metaphysical foundations.
  • Emphasis on Irrationality: Nietzsche advocated embracing the irrational elements of human existence—such as emotion, intensity, and struggle—as vital for personal and societal development.

Freud’s Psychoanalysis: The Unconscious Mind

Sigmund Freud transformed psychology with his theory of the unconscious mind and psychoanalysis, which explored conflicts between the conscious and subconscious mind.

• Key Ideas:
  • The Unconscious Mind: Freud proposed that much of human behavior is driven by unconscious desires and impulses, often originating in childhood experiences.
  • Psychic Conflict: Freud highlighted the role of internal conflicts, particularly between repressed desires and societal norms, which could lead to neuroses or other psychological conditions.
• Freud’s theories revolutionized the understanding of human behavior, moving away from purely rational explanations toward a deeper exploration of human impulses and the subconscious.

Developments in the Natural Sciences

Einstein and Quantum Mechanics: Challenging Newtonian Physics

The late 19th and early 20th centuries witnessed significant advancements in the natural sciences, challenging established assumptions about the physical world.

• Einstein’s Theory of Relativity (1905): Albert Einstein’s Theory of Relativity reshaped the understanding of time, space, and gravity, demonstrating that time and space are relative to the observer’s frame of reference, unlike Newton’s fixed concepts.
• Quantum Mechanics: Max Planck and Niels Bohr developed quantum mechanics, introducing uncertainty at the subatomic level. The notion that particles could exist in multiple states simultaneously contradicted the deterministic principles of classical physics.

These advancements dismantled the Newtonian framework of absolute space and time, revealing a more complex and uncertain universe.

Comparison of Intellectual Movements: 19th Century Thought

Conclusion

The intellectual developments from 1815 to 1914 marked a transformative era, transitioning from the Enlightenment’s rationalist principles to the subjective and experimental perspectives of Modernism. Realism and Naturalism offered critical reflections on society, addressing the struggles of the lower classes and the influence of environment and heredity. Meanwhile, Positivism and scientific breakthroughs reshaped understandings of society and the natural world, paving the way for 20th-century intellectual currents.

Key Terms

• Einstein’s Theory of Relativity: Albert Einstein’s theories of Special and General Relativity, which revolutionized physics by showing that time and space are relative, impacting fields like cosmology and astrophysics.
• Émile Zola: A leading French novelist and Naturalist who portrayed realistic depictions of life, tackling social injustices and industrialization’s effects in 19th-century France.
• Freudian Psychology: Sigmund Freud’s psychological framework emphasizing the unconscious mind, childhood experiences, and internal conflicts in shaping behavior and personality.
• Friedrich Nietzsche: A German philosopher who critiqued traditional morality and rationalism, proclaiming “God is dead” and promoting the Übermensch, influencing existentialism and modern thought.
• Modernism: A late 19th- and early 20th-century movement breaking from traditional styles, reflecting modern life through innovation and subjective themes.
• Naturalism: A philosophical and artistic movement emphasizing realistic portrayals based on natural causes, focusing on environment and heredity’s impact on individuals.
• Philosophical Approaches: Frameworks for interpreting the world, shaping 19th-century thought in science, ethics, politics, and culture.
• Quantum Mechanics: A physics theory describing subatomic behavior, introducing concepts like uncertainty and wave-particle duality, challenging classical mechanics.
• Realism: A mid-19th-century movement depicting everyday life authentically, highlighting working-class struggles and societal issues without idealization.
• Sigmund Freud: Austrian founder of psychoanalysis, whose theories on the unconscious mind, repression, and dreams reshaped psychology and cultural thought.