Darwin, Freud, Einstein

Three pillars

Charles Darwin

Darwin’s Background

• Born 1809 in Shrewsbury, England • British Naturalist• Did not love school, but father insisted he go

to medical school (which he never finished)• Learned taxidermy from a Creole freed slave• Took an interest in Botony and Geology at

school

HMS Beagle• Darwin asked to be naturalist on study of

South America aboard HMS Beagle• Biggest revelations were on the Galapagos

Islands off of Ecuador.• Realized that individual species of birds and

lizards had developed similar, but different traits across barrier.

• They were “adapting” to environment of Galapagos.

Natural Selection

• Darwin attempts to apply natural laws to his discovery of adaptation.

• This led to the concept of Natural Selection – where events and geography “choose” which species survive.

• Darwin argued that those species with the right adaptations survive.

• Writes by 1859 “On the Origin of Species”

Ape to Man

• Darwin extends his theory to man saying that natural selection and adaptation allowed man to become the dominant species.

• Man evolved to circumstances = evolution.

Impact of Darwin

• Destroyed the notion of God as the ultimate creator for some.

• Further eroded Christianity• Takes control of destiny out of the hands of

man and puts it into nature• Justified our belief in hard science as the

answer.• Social Darwinism

Social Darwinism

• Herbert Spencer the “originator” of Social Darwinism

• Applies it to social classes and societies.• Justification for imperialism, racism,

ethnocentrism, eugenics, scientific racism.

Sigmund Freud

Sigmund Freud

• Austrian Physician who spent most of his adult life in Vienna.

• Freud believed early on that our conscious thoughts are determined by hidden unconscious forces.

• Freud attempted to put the scientific method to the very “irrational” issue of thought and psychosis.

The Basis of Freud’s Theories

• Sought to explore the unconscious mind• Freud specialized in treating nervous disorders and

through this research established the concept of neuroses.

• Often the result of childhood fears and experiences, usually sexual in nature.

• Would treat these by trying to bring those experiences to light

• Oedipal complex – he felt that boys have a poor relationship with father based upon mother

Techniques Developed by Freud

• Free Association – the basis of much psychoanalysis today

• Dream Analysis – sought to analyze why people have dreams and saw them as a window into their neurosis.

Freud’s Large Conclusion

• Id – subconscious instincts – primitive and irrational. This is the ultimate in gratification and anger

• Ego – the reasonable side of consciousness – society becomes the method for repressing the Id through the ego.

• Superego – the balance to the Id, seeks to almost punish for its instincts and faults – it gives us a sense of right and wrong

Implications for Freud

• Establishment of Psychology as a social science

• Is it an ideology or a science?• Made people relinquish control of their mind -

sub conscious.• Began the serious study of the brain.• Eventually leads to concepts of brain as an

electrical entity.

Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein

• Born in Ulm, Germany in 1879• Trained in the Swiss Polytechnic School in

Zurich – worked in Patent Office during Doctoral Work.

• Did most of his best work from 1905-1911.• Eventually moved back to Berlin but

renounced his citizenship in 1933.• Moved to US and became professor of

Theoretical Physics at Princeton

Special Theory of Relativity

• The Special Theory of Relativity – E=mc2• Remarkably, he derived all his work from two

simple postulates applying to inertial frames (i.e., objects that move with constant velocity with respect to each other):– The laws of physics are the same in all inertial frames.– The speed of light is a constant in all inertial frames.– So in essence time can be at at different rates

throughout the universe, depending on how fast you moved

General Theory of Relativity

• Explains how gravitation is a distortion of the structure of space time by matter, affecting the inertial motion of other matter

• This is why Copernicus’ theory finally holds water – it explains why gravity maintains motion around a sun.

• It also demonstrates why light bends.

• http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/einstein/relativity/

Implication for the Special Theory and General Theory

• Indirectly, relativity became associated with a new relativism in morality and art and politics. There was less faith in absolutes, not only of time and space, but also of truth and morality.

• Moral Relativism – there are no universal truths

• Nuclear Energy – the basis of all nuclear energy and nuclear weapons

Nietzsche

• German Philosopher in the late 1800’s• He believed in life, creativity, health, and the

realities of the world we live in, rather than those situated in a world beyond.

• Existentialist philosopher• Postmodernist thinker

• “God is dead” – an atheist and believed that the death of God would kill objective truth.

• Nihilism – the belief in nothingness – credited to him although not always espoused

Friederich Nietzsche

Existentialism

• Existentialism in the broader sense is a 20th century philosophy that is centered upon the analysis of existence and of the way humans find themselves existing in the world. The notion is that humans exist first and then each individual spends a lifetime changing their essence or nature.

• Biggest proponent is Satre – credited with starting it. – No Exit

• “existence precedes essence”

Jean Paul Satre

So in the end….

• How do these men influence thought at the end of the century?

Man Is Left Adrift

• God is gone (Nietzsche)• Your existence is in question (Satre)• You have no free will to determine your place

in nature (Darwin)• Your mind is not completely under your will

(Freud)• Your physical view of time and space is ripped

apart (Einstein)• You are….the modern man.