Topic 7.4 & 7.5: The Age of Progress

7.4 HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS: -Charles Darwin provided a scientific and material account of biological change and the development of human beings as a species, and inadvertently, a justification for racialist theories that became known as Social Darwinism. 7.5 HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS -Positivism, or the philosophy that science alone provides knowledge, emphasized the rational and scientific analysis of nature and human affairs. -In the later 19th century, a new relativism in values and the loss of confidence in the objectivity of knowledge led to modernism in intellectual and cultural life. -Philosophy largely moved from rational interpretations of nature and human society to an emphasis on irrationality and impulse, a view that contributed to the belief that conflict and struggle led to progress. -Freudian Psychology offered a new account of human nature that emphasized the role of the irrational and the struggle between the conscious and subconscious. -Developments in the natural sciences undermined the primacy of Newtonian physics as an objective description of nature.

Which of the following was a direct challenge to the literal interpretation of the Book of Genesis as proposed by Charles Darwin?

Herbert Spencer's application of evolutionary principles to human society led to the development of which concept?

What term did Herbert Spencer coin that became synonymous with Social Darwinism?

Which of the following ideologies did Social Darwinism NOT directly contribute to?

What was the primary focus of Freudian Psychology?

Which of the following best describes Positivism?

Who is most associated with the philosophy of Positivism?

Which of the following figures is NOT associated with the rise of irrationalism in the late 19th century?

What did Max Planck's Quantum Theory challenge?

Which work by Charles Darwin suggested that human beings developed over time through a process of natural selection?

Which of the following was NOT a belief held by proponents of Social Darwinism?

Which term encapsulates the late 19th-century shift from a belief in the objectivity of knowledge to a new relativism in values?

What was the primary influence on Darwin's concept of Natural Selection?

Which of the following best characterizes the philosophical stance of Materialism?

Which of the following is NOT a key aspect of Modernism?

What did Friedrich Nietzsche's philosophy challenge?

What did Sigmund Freud use to delve into the human psyche?

Which of the following was NOT a consequence of the developments in the natural sciences in the late 19th century?

Which of the following best describes the impact of Henri Bergson's philosophy?

Which of the following works by Charles Darwin provided evidence for human evolution and common ancestry with other species?

What did Georges Sorel's advocacy for Syndicalism emphasize as the means to achieve social change?

What aspect of human nature did Sigmund Freud's 'The Interpretation of Dreams' (1899) explore?

Which of the following is a principle associated with Auguste Comte's Positivism?