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10 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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Friedrich Nietzsche
(who) |
- German Philosopher
- Brillant iconoclast - Rejected Christianity - Prof. of classical languages - Wrote in provacative and poetic styles - Attracted growing attn. in the early 20th century - German radicals found his ferocious assault inspiring on pre-1914 imperial Germany - Subsequent generations have discovered new Nietzsches and his influence remains enormous today |
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Friedrich Nietzsche
(what he did) |
- Wrote that the West had overemphasized rationality and stifled the passion and animal instict that drive human activity and true creativity
- Questioned all values - Christianity embodied "slave morality" - God is Dead - Pillars of conventional morality were outworn social and psychological constructs whose influence was suffocating self-realization and excellence - The West was in decline, false values had triumphed - Only hope was to accept the meaninglessness of human existenence,then make that a source of self-defined personal integrity and liberation |
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Henri Bergson
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- French Philosophy Professor
- Convinced many young people that immediate experience and intuition were as important as rational and scientific thinking for understanding reality |
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George Sorel
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- French Socialist
- Also believed in the limits of rational thinking - Characterized Marxian socialism as an inspiring but unprovable religion rather than a rational scientific truth - rejected democracy - The masses of the new socialist society would have to be tightly controlled by a small revolutionary elite |
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WWI revolt against established certainties in philosophy (2 directions)
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1) English speaking countries main development was the acceptance of logical empiricism (or logical positivism)
2) Continental countries primary development of philosophy was existentialism |
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Logical Empiricism
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-Truly revolutionary
- Rejected most of the concerns of traditional philosophy as nonsense and hot air - began w/ Austrian Philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein - Remained dominent in England and US to this day |
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Ludwig Wittgenstein
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- Austrian Philosopher
- wrate an essay on Logical Philosophy "Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus in 1922 - Philosophy is only the logical clarification of thoughts, therefore, is the study of language which expresses thoughts - God, Freedom, Morality are literally senseless, great waste of time - They can neither be tested (scientific) or demonstrated (mathematics) |
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Existentialism
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- These thinkers were in a courageous search for moral values in a world of terror and uncertainty
- Most in the 20th century were atheists - Inspired by Nietzsche, did not believe a supreme being had established humanity's fundamental nature and given life its meaning -epitomized the modern intellectual crisis - the shattering of beliefs in God, reason and progress - Human beings must act - Human beings can overcome life's absurdity - In France after WWII, it came of age |
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Existentialism (2 of 2)
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- Terrible conditions of the war reinforced this view and approach to life
- Men and women had to more than ever define themselves by their actions - They had to choose whether to resist Hitler or accept and even abet tyranny - The writings of Satre and Albert Camus lead the French existentialism and became enormously influential - Sartre and his colleagues offered a powerful answer to profound moral issues and the contemporary crisis |
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Jean-Paul Sartre
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- French Existentialist
- Believed that human beings exist, they show up and appear on scene. Only after they show up to they seek to define themselves |
