What The Modern Age Knew - Piero Scaruffi · Oswald Spengler (1922) 33 What the Modern Age knew ... What the Modern Age knew

A History Of Knowledge

What The Modern Age Knew

Chapter 15: 1920-5

Piero Scaruffi (2004) www.scaruffi.com

Edited and revised by Chris Hastings (2013)

“An eye for an eye

makes the whole world

blind”

- Mahatma Gandhi "The size of the lie is a

definite factor

in causing it to be

believed”

- Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf

“We are not shooting

enough professors”

- Lenin’s telegram

"Pacifism is objectively

pro-Fascist.”

- George Orwell, 1942

“What good fortune for

governments that the

people do not think”

- Adolf Hitler

Part 1: The Age Of World Wars

2

Synthesis of Kant, Hegel, Darwin, Wundt, Bergson, Einstein

Emergent evolution: Existence is hierarchically arranged and emerges via ongoing evolutionary process

Samuel Alexander (1920)

3

Matter emerges from space-time

Life emerges from matter

Mind emerges from life

God emerges from mind

Samuel Alexander (1920)

4

What the Modern Age knew

Three-valued logic (true, false, neither true nor false)

Jan Lukasiewicz (1920)

5


Intuitionist logic

L.E.J. Brouwer (1920)

6

No substance (“neutral monism”)

Everything in universe is made of space-time events

Bertrand Russell (1921)

7

No substance (“neutral monism”) cont’d

Events are neither mental nor physical (both matter and mind are meaningless over-simplifications of reality)


8

Matter is less material than Newton thought

Spirit is less spiritual than Berkley thought

They are different ways of organizing space-time


9

What truly exists is "events”

Difference between matter and mind is simply "causal" relationships brought to bear


10

Sensations both material and mental

Sensation is part of object that can be constructed out of it

Sensation is also part of mind in whose biography perception occurred


11

Objects defined by all appearances that emanate from its location towards minds

Mind defined by all appearances that start from objects and reach it


12


Consciousness allows us to perceive some processes that occur in our brain

What neurophysiologist really sees while examining someone else’s brain is part of her own brain


13


Irreducibility of mental to physical is illusion

Mental and physical are different ways of knowing same thing, former by consciousness and latter by senses


14


Consciousness gives us immediate, direct knowledge of what is in brain

Senses can observe what is in brain


15


Mental is transparent grasp of intrinsic character of brain

Consciousness is just another sense


16


Philosophical problems are false problems: They are due to linguistic misunderstandings

Ludwig Wittgenstein (1921)

17


Structure of language reflects structure of world

World is made of complex facts that can be broken down into simpler facts


18


Structure of language reflects structure of world cont’d

Language is made of complex propositions that can be broken down into simpler propositions


19



Totality of true propositions (totality of science) provide representation of world that is adequate and complete


20



Understanding proposition is knowing “what is the case if it is true” (i.e., to which reality it corresponds)


21


Language is like map of world

Connections between elements of language reflect connections between elements of world


22


Language means the world because names mean objects and sentences mean facts

Meaning of world cannot be understood from inside world


23


Ethics is impossible because we are inside world that ethics struggles to understand


24


Metaphysics is fictitious discipline due to a wrong use of language

It is neither true nor false, it cannot be justified (just like religion and magic)


25


Mathematical entities are pure constructions of mind

Mathematician is an inventor

Mathematics cannot be grounded in world: It is game played by mathematicians


26


Language and thought influence each other

Language also shapes thought

Structure of language has an influence on way its speakers understand environment

Edward Sapir (1921)

27


Language contains a hidden metaphysics

Language contains implicit classification of experience

Grammatical and categorical patterns of language embody cultural models

Edward Sapir (1921)

28


Language is culturally-determined system of patterns that creates categories by which individuals not only communicate but also think

Edward Sapir (1921)

29


Proto-existentialist

Any attempt to reduce the three elements of reality (God, the world, and humanity) to logic is contrary to experience (critique of Hegel)

Franz Rosenzweig (1921)

30


Three elements of reality form a Whole

The Whole can be appreciated only through transcendent experience


31


“All knowledge of the Whole originates in the fear of death”


32


History is cyclical, not linear (not unlimited evolution/progress)

High Cultures: Indian, Babylonian, Egyptian, Chinese, Mayan-Aztec, Arabian (Hebraic and Islamic), Classical (Greece and Rome), Western (European), each lasting about 1000 years

Oswald Spengler (1922)

33


Histories of various cultures follow a similar pattern

All aspects of a culture (art, politics, science) share underlying principles which differ from culture to culture


34


Each High Culture has distinguishing feature ("prime symbol" or soul, generally derived from its religion) which permeates art, science, and politics


35


Egyptian: "Path”

Preoccupation with sequential passages of the soul

Spengler’s “Prime Symbols”

36


Classical: “Point-present”

Preoccupation with

Neighborhood

The domestic


37


Preoccupation with cont’d

Space of immediate visibility

Euclidean geometry


38


Preoccupation with cont’d

Two-dimensional painting and relief-sculpture

Lack of facial expression of Grecian statues


39


Western: "Faustian" soul

Preoccupation with upward reaching for the absolute/infinite

Vertical style of Gothic cathedrals


40


Preoccupation with upward reaching for the absolute/infinite cont’d

Classical music


41


Culture is "organic,” follows a life pattern

Spring: Time of origin of its basic principles

Birth of religion


42


Culture is "organic,” follows a life pattern cont’d

Summer: “Best shape”

All facets are working according to culture's principles


43


Summer: “Best shape” cont’d

Age of greatest achievements


44



Autumn

Principles break down

Mega-cities are born


45


Autumn cont’d

Money drives politics

Citizens question traditions

Art is non-intuitive


46


Autumn cont’d

Atheism spreads

Benign despot takes over to restore order


47



Winter

Despots battle each other for control of planet


48


Winter cont’d

Masses are indifferent

Cities depopulate

Masses gradually return to traditional values


49


Western civilization

Culture of directedness and will ("Faustian")

Western religion requires us to convert others


50


Culture of directedness and will ("Faustian") cont’d

Western art has perspective and direction

Western music is directed toward tonal center


51


Culture of directedness and will ("Faustian") cont’d

Western science is about changing world

Western mathematics is not only geometry (static), but also calculus (dynamic)


52


Western civilization cont’d

Ended its summer in second half of 18th century

Began its autumn with Napoleon


53


Western civilization cont’d

Entered its winter in 19th century


54


A culture moves in direction of its destiny, regardless of individual choices

One can choose to contribute or to be irrelevant


55


Supreme duty of individual is striving for destruction of capitalism and democracy


56

Mind grows, just like body

Living beings are in constant interaction with their environment

Jean Piaget (1923)

57

Survival depends on maintaining state of equilibrium between organism and environment

Regulation of behavior in order to continuously adapt to information flow from environment

Jean Piaget (1923)

58

Cognition, therefore, is but self-regulation

Jean Piaget (1923)

59

Cognitive process = loop of assimilation and accommodation that proceeds in stages

Progress from simple mental arrangements to complex ones (from literal to abstract)

Jean Piaget (1923)

60

Not by gradual evolution but by sudden rearrangements of mental operations

Jean Piaget (1923)

61

Cognitive growth = transition from stage in which dominant factor is perception, which is irreversible, to stage in which dominant factor is abstract thought, which is reversible

Jean Piaget (1923)

62

Semantics (relations between signs and objects)

Pragmatics (relations between signs, objects, and users)

Jean Piaget (1923)

63

Human existence is defined by way in which we engage in dialogue with each other, with the world, and with God

Martin Buber (1923)

64

Two types of relationships:

I-It (subject to object) relationship

I-You (subject to subject) relationship

Martin Buber (1923)

65

I-It (subject to object)

relationship

Viewing both objects and people by their functions, as means to ends

The I is detached from the It

Martin Buber (1923)

66

I-It (subject to object)

relationship cont’d

The being of the I belongs to I, but not to It

Martin Buber (1923)

67

I-You (subject to subject)

relationship

Experiencing both objects and people

New level of awareness (dynamic, creative)

Martin Buber (1923)

68

I-You (subject to subject)

relationship cont’d

The I is unified with the You

The being of the I belongs both to I and to You

Martin Buber (1923)

69

I-You is natural state

I-You antedates the I

I-It postulates the I

Martin Buber (1923)

70

God is Eternal You

We can't define God (it can only be experienced)

Proving God's existence or defining God reduces God to an I-It relationship

Martin Buber (1923)

71


Problem-solving as sudden insight

Restructuring field of perception

Wolfgang Kohler (1925)

72


Biological systems are networks of chemical agents that undergo cycles (autocatalysis)

Cycles help network exist, assume identity, and grow

Alfred Lotka (1925)

73


"What good fortune for governments that the people do not think"

"The size of the lie is a definite factor in causing it to be believed”

Adolf Hitler (1925)

74


“Those who want to live, let them fight, and those who do not want to fight in this world of eternal struggle do not deserve to live”

“Mankind has grown strong in eternal struggles and it will only perish though eternal peace”

Adolf Hitler (1925)

75


“Propaganda must not serve the truth, especially insofar as it might bring out something favorable for the opponent”

Adolf Hitler (1925)

76


"Any alliance whose purpose is not the intention to wage war is senseless and useless”

"It is always more difficult to fight against faith than against knowledge”

Adolf Hitler (1925)

77


"National Socialist Germany wants peace because of its fundamental convictions.. no war would be likely to alter the distress in Europe... The principal effect of every war is to destroy the flower of the nation... Germany needs peace and desires peace!”

Adolf Hitler (1925)

78

Emergent materialism explains relation between mind and body

Charlie-Dunbar Broad (1925)

This is a chapter in Piero Scaruffi’s “A

History Of Knowledge:”

http://www.scaruffi.com/know

http://www.scaruffi.com/know

Documents

What The Modern Age Knew - Piero Scaruffi · Oswald Spengler (1922) 33 What the Modern Age knew ... What the Modern Age knew