Age of Anxiety by Alexander Stec and Brandon Banas by

Modern Philosophy

apstec — 2016-03-29 01:32:47 UTC

Summary:

Before World War 1, German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900), son of a Lutheran minister, rejected Christianity and believed that the Christian order of the West was obsolete and that it stifled creativity. He claimed that Christianity was a "slave morality" glorifying weakness and mediocrity and that "God was dead" due to peoples growing disbelief in God. Nietzsche also argued that the West had overemphasized rationality which stopped the natural animal instinct and creativity of humans which made him question all western values including reason, democracy, progress, and respectability. He called for people (especially superior people) to realize this and accept the meaninglessness of human existence and the emptiness of the social convention. This growing dissatisfaction with established ideas in Philosophy before WW1 became prevalent with philosophers such as the Frenchman Henri Bergson (1859–1941) who argued that experience and intuition were as important as rational thinking, and Georges Sorel (1847–1922) who described Marxist socialism as a religion and not a scientific truth rejecting capitalism. This thought became accelerated during WW1 when philosophers revolted against established certainties and led to 2 new but very different developments in philosophy. One of these developments was Logical Empiricism which rejected most of the concerns of traditional philosophy, such as the existence of god or the meaning of life. This outlook was developed primarily by Austrian philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951) who argued that philosophy when ultimately reduced is the study of language and expressing thoughts and that the great issues surrounding god, freedom, etc are a waist of time as it can't be scientifically tested or proven stating "Of what one cannot speak, of that one must keep silent." The other development, Existentialism, went the other direction where most thinkers were Atheists who rejected the notion of God but sought moral values in a world of terror and loneliness and despair though giving life meaning through individuals actions and choices. While Logical Empiricism was more popular in English-speaking countries, Existentialism reigned supreme on the continent of Europe, especially in Germany, due to Marin Heidegger and Karl Jasper attracting followers.

Analysis:

The first image is Friedrich Nietzsche in 1875 about 40 years before the start of World War One who is the forefather of the dissatisfaction with established ideas in philosophies (look at that face... See that dissatisfaction?). His early theories and publications influenced other philosophers such as Henri Bergson and Georges Sorel which led to the development of 2 radical developments in Modern Philosophy after World War One. One of these developments is Logical Empiricism which was developed by Ludwig Wittgenstein in his publication Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (shown above) which spoke about how we should ignore the past issues in philosophy such as god, meaning of life, human existence, etc as it can't be scientifically proven or tested. This logical empiricism added to the anxiety of the age because it didn't give the anxious people any answers pertaining to the issues of the old philosophies.

New Physics

apstec — 2016-03-29 01:33:13 UTC

Summary:

Ever since the Scientific Revolution in the 17th century, new scientific discoveries, advances, and methodology influenced the beliefs of the thinking people (especially pertaining to religious views), and by the 19th century science was one of the main reasons of the Western society's optimistic and rationalistic views of the world. Progressive minds thought that science was more concrete than religion and philosophy due to its hard facts and controlled experiments and believed that science was an almost complete unchanging picture of reality which continued to solve more and more problems. This felt comforting to people, especially those who did not partake in traditional religious beliefs. All of these beliefs and feelings about science were challenged by the new physics, which pertained mostly to relativity and the atom, which gave people uncertainty about the world and the universe they live in. Polish (:D!!!!!) physicist Marie Curie (1867-1934) discovered that radium constantly emits subatomic particles and didn't have a constant weight. Building on this German Max Planck (1858-1947) showed that subatomic energy is emitted in uneven spurts and not in streams implying that matter and energy might be DIFFERENT forms of the same thing. The discovery that atoms were not always the stable unbreakable building block of nature scared people as it undermined some parts of Newtonian physics. German genius Albert Einstein (1879-1955) then came along in 1905 and came up with his theory of relativity where time and space were relative to the viewer and that only at the speed of light is the constant frame of reference. He even expanded on Max Planck's ideas and discovered that matter and energy are interchangeable. The 1920's then came around which brought even more revolutionary ideas about the atom, such as Ernest Rutherford (1871-1937) discovering that the atom could be split and by 1944 over 7 subatomic particles had been identified (the most important of which was the neutron). This led to the development of the atomic bomb. Although the layman at this time wouldn't understand these revolutionary ideas about relativity and atoms it still brought on anxiety and confusion and uncertainty to the universe. This new universe lacked any absolute objective reality where everything was relative and seemed very complex where as Newton had dependable, rational laws.

Analysis:

The discoveries of radiation with changing atomic masses by Marie Curie (shown above), combined with the discoveries of relativity and energy of matter (E=mc^2) of Albert Einstein (shown above), and the discovery of subatomic particles (including the neutron) aided by Rutherford (shown above) all broke the rational, dependable laws that Newton discovered and made the universe seem complex, grand and confusing. These theories brought greater confusion and uncertainty to the universe where everything was relative which did not aid the anxious feeling of the time as the concrete based on facts science of the time was becoming more confusing with less answers to peoples troubles.

20th Century Literature

apstec — 2016-03-29 01:33:34 UTC

Summary:

The Age of Anxiety with its general climate of pessimism, relativism, and alienation was also articulated in literature. Novelists developed new techniques to express the new realities of the time. During the 19th century novelists usually had an all-knowing narrator and described realistic characters with their relationship with society while in the 20th century most novelists had the narrator be limited or even confused in their viewpoint of a single individual. These novelists would focus more on the complexity and irrationality of humans and their behaviors including the complexities of feelings, memories and desires. Serious novelists used the stream-of-consciousness technique, or using interior monologue, to further explore the human psyche. This was used by Virginia Woolf (1882-1941) in "In Jacob's room", by William Faulkner (1897-1962) in "The sound and the Fury" and by James Joyce (1882-1941) in "Ulysses". Writers during the 20th century turned away from society and reality to the individual and the psychology of the individual, rejecting the idea of progress. This rejection of the idea of progress, stemming from the age of anxiety, led to dystopian novels, the first of which being "the Decline of the West" by German Oswald Spengler (1880-1936). The best and ultimate dystopian novel that is still widely read today talks about a dictator stripping people of their dignity through psychological terror and technology which is called "1984" by George Orwell (1903-1950).

Analysis:

The Age of Anxiety was shown in literature following World War one where novelists would embrace the pessimistic ideals of society. They would go from all-knowing narrators and well described realistic characters to limited questionable narrators and the complexities of the human psyche which they sometimes developed through interior monologue. A good example of this would be William Faulkner with his publication of The sound and the Fury. Looking at the cover of the book alone you see a figure fighting or struggling with some darker turmoils and shadows as people in society would have. This pessimism in the age of anxiety led to authors rejecting the belief of progress in societies leading to novels about dystopias which actually have future societies that actually progressed backwards. A good example of this is George Orwell's novel 1984.

Modern Painting

apstec — 2016-03-29 01:33:51 UTC

Summary:

Modern painting grew out of a revolt against French impressionism such as the works of art by Claude Monet (1840-1926), Pierre Auguste Renoir (1841-1919), and Camille Pissarro (1830-1903) which were super realistic. After the culmination of impressionism in 1890 some artists, known as post impressionists or expressionists, were developing new forms of artworks and increasingly took on a more abstract, non representational form in a desire to know and depict worlds outside of this realm of existence or depict reality in overwhelming emotional intensity. Painters, such as Van Gogh (1853-1890) and Paul Gauguin (1848-1903), became more fascinated with form instead of lighting and shadows. Paul Cezanne (1839-1906) who was an expressionist was a great example of this increasing focus on form saying "You must see in nature the cylinder, the sphere, and the cone". As expressionist works progressed some painters even stepped away from the traditional 3 dimensional paintings and painted only on a 2 dimensional plane. Then, in 1907, Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) founded another movement of art-cubism which concentrated on complex geometric zigzagging lines and sharply angled, overlapping planes. Some artists such as Russian Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944) adopted this and completely turned away from nature stating that "the observer must learn to look at my pictures as form and color combinations, as a representation of mood and not a representation of objects". The First World War accelerated these movements not only in Paris but Russia and Germany as well and after the war these artistic movements were extended and developed further, the most important of which being dadaism and surrealism. Dadaism attacked all accepted standards of art and behavior and sought to make deliberate nonsensical art with the biggest example of Dadaism being The Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci. After 1924 many dadaists turned to surrealism which became influential in the post war era (the age of anxiety), painting fantastic worlds of wild dreams and symbols where clocks and metronomes were melting in some alien landscape. The refusal to depict ordinary objects realistically made statements about how artists saw and felt about the age of anxiety.

Analysis:

Early in the expressionist movement artists focused less on the lighting and the shadows of the painting and more on the abstract form of their object as they started to get away from the ultra realistic style of paintings at the time, which is shown in "the starry night" by Van Gogh in 1889. This was getting more and more developed until Pablo Picasso founded another movement called cubism which focused on geometric shapes and overlapping planes with sharp lines and zigzagging shapes. Wassily Kandinsky took a liking to this style, completely reteaching himself how to paint and painted House of Munich in 1908 which is a great example of cubism with its rectangular shapes and overlapping planes within the hotel itself. The painting to the left of it "the blue rider" also by Wassily Kandinsky shows his previous style before reteaching himself how to paint in this new style. Finally the final development of art stemming from Cubism, expressionist, and dadaist art, Surrealism, is the final development of this more abstract less realistic form of painting and became the most popular after the first world war, during the age of anxiety. The artists chose to paint abstract alien worlds rather than realistic figures and landscapes for 2 reasons. One of which is escaping from the anxious world that they lived in during that time, with the artists preferring to paint alien abstract thoughts then the gloomy disposition of society at the time, or another reason is that the artists were painting the anxious feeling of people in society at the time and how they couldn't explain or answer their struggles and problems. An example of this would be the final painting on the right "The persistence of Memory" by Salvador Dali showing a desert or a barren wasteland with melting clocks.

Revival of Christianity

bbanas — 2016-03-29 01:48:20 UTC

Summary:
Christianity and religion in general had been on the defensive ever since the Enlightenment; examples being that modern Theologists and thinkers, prior to WWI, had been reforming and interpreting the Christian doctrine in ways that didn't contradict modern science and common sense at the time. However, after 1914, the continent saw a surge in the relevance of religion due to the atrocities of war and people like Gabriel Marcel, a boy born in a French family and raised by an atheist father, who found piety, answers, and faith in the Catholicism.

Analysis:

People mourn over the dead and hope that they have a second chance through religion. We also see a German platoon in mass pre-battle, the similarities in faith from opposing sides fuels followers' questions asking why this is happening and how to stop it. What was once existenial, was again a meaningful part of these people's lives as an answer to terror and anxiety, "One began to believe in heaven because one believed in hell."

Freudian Psychology

bbanas — 2016-03-29 01:48:54 UTC

Summary:
The background for this kind of thinking formed out of these new fields of sciences defining the universe in ways that were unrelated to conventional human experiences. Sigmund Freud's findings based off this kind of analysis were particularly disturbing. He categorized the human psych into two categories: irrational and rational. The irrational aspect of human thought was driven by the unconsious and its desires for sexual, aggressive, and pleasureful activities (he called all this the id); whereas the rational side of humans was categorized as what else we can do and our ingrained moral values (the ego) as well as what we should do (the superego). This fine balance between the two can be easily tipped to one side and cause people to either repress sexual desires, cripple entire peoples with guilt and neurotic fears (like we saw with the Germans) or cause people to become animalistic in nature. This kind of thinking post WWI caused, mainly middle class women, to experiment sexually, yet also caused university students to shift from the old optimistic view of an ever changing rational human mind to one of a darker nature.

Analysis:
This kind of thinking spurred up out of the chaos and despair of post WWI, the lack of self judgement was shown by the leaders of countries and the actions of people committed during war questioned people's psych and led people like Sigmund Freud to explore the field more and in new ways then what had been done in the past. The picture to the left is of a woman in an English film called "female vamps!" and was heavily censored by the British Board of Film Censors, mainly due to it's heavily sketchy material that reflects the influx of id actions at the time.

Architecture

bbanas — 2016-03-29 01:50:05 UTC

Summary:
Architecture, was more of a practical and artificial change then of a change in the universal human condition. Architecture prior to WWI across Europe was mainly ornamental; the US at this point, since the late 1800s, had already started on the track of modernising its architecture, starting in our home town of Chicago. Building were beginning to be seen as industrial products and their functionability, hence the arise of the new architecual term, functionalism; this was mainly due to the lack of a long standing ornamental style of traditional architecture across the country. Architects, such as Frank Lloyd Wright, and Louis H. Sullivan, began using steel and reinforced concrete in their designs, creating simplistic, yet extremely practical and functional works along our lake shore and soon this trend spread to other major cities as well across the country.

Analysis:
Post WWI, Europe started adopting some of the techniques the Americans were using, in their reconstruction period, due to the damage caused by the war. People weren't looking for a restoration of the past, they were looking for a place to future to build towards, something post WWI, a good place, and this simplistic style of architecture helped them through the Age of Anxiety.

Movies and Radio

bbanas — 2016-03-29 01:50:21 UTC

Summary:
Prior to WWI, movies were originally small occurrences at naughty peep-shows that only lasted a few minutes; soon these establishments evolved out of the movie houses in L.A. and eventually became the grand movie industry in America prior to WWI. The US remained the dominant force in the movie industry up until the 1930s when "talkies" brought back national film industries, despite a short surge in the German film industry in the 1920s, where soon after many actors and directors were bought out by the money from American producers (you know, and the raise of Hitler and beginning of WWII).
The radio was marvel in its time, all post WWI. Once radio was made possible by transcontinental wiring and vacuum tubes, radios were in 3 out of 4 houses in both democratic and dictatorial countries. This new invention gave politicians a new way to reach out to the people, essentially propaganda.

Analysis:
The relationship we can make going into the Age of Anxiety with movies and radio is that these people, especially Europeans, wanted to experience a new form of entertainment; and this form of entertainment provided something previously unobtainable, a form a escapism, a step away from the reality of the world into a movie or song on the radio. At the same time, the world came even closer to the people through these forms of media, and the reality of the world around them whether it be a parody film like The Dictator or news broadcasts and propaganda from politicians like our good old friend Churchill.

Soldier mourning dead comrades

bbanas — 2016-03-29 02:21:20 UTC

German platoon during mass before battle

bbanas — 2016-03-29 02:29:58 UTC

Friedrich Nietzshe in 1875

apstec — 2016-03-29 02:58:27 UTC

bbanas — 2016-03-29 03:06:40 UTC

Sigmund Freud

bbanas — 2016-03-29 03:08:54 UTC

Technically, this works, but the work itself was controversial to add to actual collage.

Ludwig Wittgenstein in 1930

apstec — 2016-03-29 03:11:47 UTC

Ludwig Wittgenstein's work Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus in 1918

bbanas — 2016-03-29 03:12:03 UTC

Female actor from English film, "female Vamps!"

bbanas — 2016-03-29 03:23:35 UTC

Sigmund Freud

bbanas — 2016-03-29 03:34:21 UTC

1920s Chicago Skyline

bbanas — 2016-03-29 04:19:40 UTC

Post WWI French hotel

bbanas — 2016-03-29 04:20:34 UTC

Falling Water, Frank Lloyd Wright

bbanas — 2016-03-29 04:20:59 UTC

Albert Einstein in 1921

apstec — 2016-03-29 04:31:03 UTC

Marie Curie working in her laboratory at the university of Paris in 1925

apstec — 2016-03-29 04:42:25 UTC

Rutherford at McGill University in 1905

apstec — 2016-03-29 04:54:50 UTC

Rutherford model of an atom developed in 1911

apstec — 2016-03-29 04:55:28 UTC

Kawaii

bbanas — 2016-03-29 05:09:35 UTC

Winston Churchill Speaking through a BBC microphone

bbanas — 2016-03-29 05:11:50 UTC

Charlie Chaplin starring in The Dictator

bbanas — 2016-03-29 05:16:58 UTC

Slapstick Chase Scene from the 1920s

bbanas — 2016-03-29 05:36:27 UTC

The Starry Night By Van Gogh 1889

apstec — 2016-03-29 06:06:11 UTC

The Blue Rider By Wassily Kandinsky (1903)

apstec — 2016-03-29 06:07:20 UTC

Houses in Munich by Wassily Kandinksy (1908)

apstec — 2016-03-29 06:07:26 UTC

The Persistence of Memory by Salvador Dali (1931)

apstec — 2016-03-29 06:09:36 UTC

The Sound and the Fury First Edition (1929) by William Faulkner

apstec — 2016-03-29 07:26:13 UTC

William Faulkner in 1954

apstec — 2016-03-29 07:26:40 UTC

George Orwell in 1943

apstec — 2016-03-29 07:31:55 UTC

First Edition 1984 by George Orwell

apstec — 2016-03-29 07:32:26 UTC