Lecture #6
Intellectual and Social Currents in the Modern Age.
1. Medical Advances
Sulfa Drugs, penicillin, cortisone and antibiotics where discovered between 1910 and 1946
which combated formally crippling infectious diseases. Furthermore vitamins, hormones, adrenalin, and insulin were also available to promote health or relieve suffering. By 1955 polio was all but eliminated and in 1975 Small Pox was eradicated from the face of the earth. This was done by Vaccines. Finally breakthroughs in surgery led to the transplantation of vital organs like kidneys and hearts.Developed in 1932 allowed one to bombard the nucleus of atoms for basic scientific research.
A principal research tool of nuclear physics involves the use of beams of particles (e.g., protons or electrons) directed as projectiles against nuclear targets. Recoiling particles and any resultant nuclear fragments are detected, and their directions and energies are analyzed to reveal details of nuclear structure and to learn more about the strong nuclear force. A much weaker nuclear force, the so-called weak interaction, is responsible for the emission of beta rays. Nuclear collision experiments use beams of higher-energy particles, including those of unstable particles called mesons produced by primary nuclear collisions in accelerators dubbed meson factories. Exchange of mesons between protons and neutrons is directly responsible for the strong nuclear force.3. Sir James Chadwick
In 1932 Chadwick observed that beryllium, when exposed to bombardment by alpha particles, released an unknown radiation that in turn ejected protons from the nuclei of various substances. Chadwick interpreted this radiation as being composed of particles of mass approximately equal to that of the proton, but without electrical charge--neutrons.
4. Fission
In 1938 German scientists successfully performed fission in the Laboratory. They found that Uranium, when bombarded by neutrons, could release unprecedented energy. Scientists explained that when a certain form, or isotope, of the Uranium atom absorbs a neutron it becomes violently unstable and splits into two parts, releasing not only energy but neutrons of its own that then trigger the splitting of other atoms in chain reaction, resulting in the emission of energy, resulting in the emission of energy in prodigious amounts.
5 Albert Einstein
in the first 15 years of the 20th century, advanced a series of theories that for the first time asserted the equivalence of mass and energy and proposed entirely new ways of thinking about space, time, and gravitation.(E=MC2) His theories of relativity and gravitation were a profound advance over the old Newtonian physics and revolutionized scientific and philosophic inquiry. By the age of 12 Einstein had decided to devote himself to solving the riddle of the "huge world." Three years later, with poor grades in history, geography, and languages, he left school with no diploma and went to Milan to rejoin his family, who had recently moved there from Germany because of his father's business setbacks. By 1934 he fled Nazi Germany. By 1940 he had helped convince the United States to develop an atomic weapon before the Hitler did.
6. Manhattan Project
the successful secret operation in Alamegero New Mexico that led to the building of three atomic bombs. Their price tag was 1 billion dollars,
which in 1945 was a hunk of change.in the 1950s American Scientists developed Fusion which is the joining together of lighter atoms to form heavier ones, at great heat, with accompanying thermonuclear chain reactions. This was the basis of the hydrogen bomb in which atomic fission bombs were used as detonators. Such thermonuclear fusion was believed to be responsible for the energy of the sun itself. This discovery gave scientists the understanding of the mechanism which powered the universe. By 1980 there were 1000s of Thermonuclear warheads each one which had equal power of all the explosive forces used in all previous warfare since the invention of gunpowder.
Betrand Russell and Alfred North Whitehead
wrote this book on philosophy. Logical positivism or logical empiricism. To approach philosophy through empirical science, mathematics and symbolic logic. They basically tried to use mathematics to establish the principals of Logic.9. Philosophy of Language
This is basically the opposite of the mathematical approach. It says that there are principals of logic which can only expressed with language. They further use semantics and linguistic analysis to arrive at truths.
modernist thought tended to dominate early in the 20th century, minimized the supernatural and dogmatic aspects of faith and tried to adapt the religious teachings of the gospel to social needs of the contemporary world.
However the World Wars diminished this influence.11. Karl Barth
sought to lead Protestantism back to the root principles of the Reformation. Paul Tillich was also involved in this.
12. Roman Catholic Church
Vatican II reviewed church teachings. It was the first Vatican Council meeting since 1870.
13. Existentialism
grappled in the early postwar years with the human predicament. This basically rejected concepts of blind faith and dogma and emphasized Abeing@. Unlike the animals and trees, humans have choices and there are such things as good choices and bad ones. It has no ethic so it doesn=t tell you what to choose but emphasizes that all have choices. Pascal, Nietzsche, underscored the tragic element in human existence and limitations on the power of human reason. Kerkegaard also a religious writer had great influence. They accepted what they liked to call the absurdity of the human situation, they sought to reconcile the discrepancy between human ideals and a universe they considered devoid of purpose.
14. 1960s Youth Rebellion
result of the aftermath of WWII Vietnam and a period of relative political instability combined with unprecedented affluence led to the use of drugs, disillusionment and general rioting among college aged people in Western Countries. They eventually grew up to be Yuppies.