Modern Thought and Culture in 1900: Crash Course European History #31

Summary

In this Crash Course episode, John Green explores the transformative impact of modernism on early 20th-century European arts, sciences, and philosophy. He discusses the radical shifts in music, dance, and visual arts, highlighting the works of artists like Picasso and Monet. Green also delves into scientific breakthroughs by Einstein, Planck, and Curie, and philosophical ideas from Freud and Nietzsche, showing how these advancements challenged traditional norms and shaped modern thought.

Takeaways

• 🏛️ The early 20th century was marked by significant social and political upheavals, including feminist movements, Irish resistance against British rule, and the Russian Revolution of 1905.
• 🎭 Modernism in arts and sciences emerged as a response to traditional norms, characterized by a rejection or radical alteration of previous artistic and intellectual conventions.
• 🎵 Modern classical music and dance saw a shift from traditional tunes and graceful movements to more abstract and primitive styles, which were initially met with controversy.
• 🖼️ Visual artists like the Impressionists broke from realism, focusing on capturing the fleeting nature of life and the industrial, urban, and working-class experiences.
• 🌐 Global influences, including those from colonized regions, profoundly affected European art, leading to the incorporation of foreign elements and styles.
• 🔬 Scientific advancements like radioactivity, quantum theory, and relativity challenged long-held beliefs about the physical world and introduced new paradigms in understanding reality.
• 🧠 Sigmund Freud's psychoanalysis introduced the concept of a divided psyche, with the ego, id, and superego in conflict, and emphasized the importance of addressing repressed desires and fears.
• 🌐 The influence of global ideas and theosophy on art and philosophy suggested a search for spiritual truths beyond traditional Western perspectives.
• 🤔 The rise of relativism and pragmatism in social sciences challenged the positivist belief in the existence of universal social laws, emphasizing the complexity and irrationality of human behavior.
• ⚖️ Friedrich Nietzsche's philosophy questioned the existence of absolute truth and the decline of religious certainties, advocating for a new search for meaning in a modern context.

Q & A

What significant events marked the beginning of the 20th century in terms of social and political upheavals?

The beginning of the 20th century was marked by feminists smashing store windows, the Irish contesting British rule, Russians challenging royal rule in the Revolution of 1905, the Dreyfus affair in France, and anarchists assassinating heads of state and members of powerful families.

How did modernism in the arts differ from traditional art forms?

Modernism in the arts differed from traditional forms by rejecting or radically altering what had come before. It featured abstract and non-realistic depictions, with music producing sounds that were seen as screeching and scratching, and dance movements that were jerky and pounded the floor, imitating foreign styles seen at world fairs and in distant lands.

What was the significance of the term 'modernism' in the context of early 20th-century art and thought?

The term 'modernism' signified a rejection or radical alteration of traditional artistic and intellectual pursuits. It represented a shift towards abstraction and a higher level of rationality in dealing with abstract forms, challenging the Enlightenment's rational approach to reality.

How did the visual arts change with the advent of modernism?

With modernism, visual artists changed their style frequently, breaking with realism. Impressionists like Édouard Manet and Claude Monet produced paintings with indistinct colors and lines, focusing on the fleetingness of life and the constantly changing appearance of nature, rather than stabilizing it in static 'realism'.

What was the impact of industrialization and urbanization on the subject matter of art during this period?

Industrialization and urbanization led artists to focus on industrial, urban, and working-class life, replacing the traditional portrayal of aristocratic privilege. Artists like Kaethe Kollwitz emphasized the frailty and suffering of the poor, reflecting the socio-economic changes of the time.

How did the art nouveau style influence everyday objects and consumer culture?

The art nouveau style, characterized by curving lines and romanticized forms, was applied to everyday objects like cutlery and combs. It also influenced consumer culture through colorful advertising posters for various products and services, enhancing the appeal of modern phenomena like department stores and mass consumerism.

What were some of the scientific discoveries and theories that revolutionized the understanding of the physical world at the turn of the 20th century?

Scientific discoveries and theories that revolutionized the understanding of the physical world included Antoine Becquerel's discovery of radioactivity, Marie and Pierre Curie's findings on radioactive elements, Max Planck's quantum theory, and Albert Einstein's theories of relativity, which challenged the absolute nature of space and time and introduced the concept of a fourth dimension.

How did Sigmund Freud's psychoanalytic theories challenge the Enlightenment beliefs about human rationality?

Sigmund Freud's psychoanalytic theories challenged Enlightenment beliefs by suggesting that the human psyche contains conflicting elements like the ego, id, and superego, rather than being a unified rational entity. He introduced the concept of a 'talking cure' to address mental disturbances caused by these internal conflicts.

What were the key ideas of Friedrich Nietzsche that contributed to the modernist thought?

Friedrich Nietzsche's key ideas contributing to modernist thought included the denial of the certainty of truth, the assertion that all knowledge is a human perception, and the famous declaration 'God is dead,' which symbolized the decline of absolute truths and traditional religious values.

How did the modernist thinkers view the relationship between perceived reality and objective reality?

Modernist thinkers questioned the relationship between perceived and objective reality, suggesting that our understanding of the world is often skewed by our everyday interpretations and representations, which do not always align with scientific or objective truths.

Outlines

00:00

🎨 Modernism in Arts and Sciences

The script introduces the concept of modernism, which emerged at the turn of the 20th century, as a radical shift from traditional art, music, and dance. It discusses how modernism challenged the Enlightenment's rational approach and introduced abstract thought and new forms of expression. The paragraph also highlights the public's initial negative reaction to these changes, comparing modern music to noise and modern dance to primitive movements. It notes the influence of foreign cultures on modern art and music, as well as the economic shifts that allowed artists to earn a living from public commissions and art dealers rather than solely from wealthy patrons.

05:00

🌐 Global Influences and Scientific Revolutions

This paragraph delves into the impact of global ideas on European art, mentioning how artists like Hilma af Klint and Edvard Munch were influenced by spiritual beliefs from colonized worlds and other distant lands. It also discusses the revolutionary scientific discoveries of the time, such as radioactivity, quantum theory, and the theories of relativity by Albert Einstein. These scientific advancements challenged the Newtonian understanding of the universe and introduced new paradigms in physics, which had profound implications for technology and our understanding of the world.

10:05

🧠 Freudian Psychoanalysis and Modernist Philosophy

The final paragraph explores the psychological theories of Sigmund Freud, who introduced the concept of a divided psyche consisting of the ego, id, and superego. It discusses Freud's method of psychoanalysis and his controversial views on sexuality and gender identity. The paragraph also touches on the broader philosophical movements of the time, such as relativism and pragmatism, which challenged the positivist belief in discoverable social laws. It concludes with a mention of Friedrich Nietzsche's existential philosophy, which questioned the certainty of truth and the decline of religious absolutes, and reflects on how modernist ideas could be used in various ways, including those with tragic consequences.

Keywords

💡Modernism

Modernism refers to a cultural movement that rejected or radically altered traditional forms of art, literature, and social organization. In the context of the video, modernism is highlighted as a response to the political and social upheavals of the early 20th century. It is seen in the arts through the rejection of realism in favor of abstraction and new forms of expression, such as in the music of the 'Rite of Spring' and the paintings of the impressionists. The video suggests that modernism demanded a higher level of rationality to engage with abstract forms, challenging the audience's perception of reality.

💡Abstraction

Abstraction in art and thought refers to the practice of reducing recognizable imagery to its basic elements or removing it entirely to focus on form, color, and composition. The video explains that modernist artists like Picasso used geometric shapes to portray subjects and that abstraction required a higher level of thought from the viewer, as it moved away from concrete depictions of reality. This concept is central to understanding the shift in artistic expression during the early 20th century.

💡Impressionism

Impressionism is an art movement characterized by small, thin, visible brush strokes, open composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities, and unusual visual angles. In the video, impressionism is mentioned as a precursor to modernism, with artists like Monet using indistinct colors and lines to capture the fleeting nature of life, contrasting with the static images of 'realism'.

💡Rationality

Rationality in the video is discussed in the context of the Enlightenment's approach to reality and is contrasted with the perceived irrationality of modernist art. It is suggested that modernism, particularly in its abstract forms, may actually demand a higher level of rational thought to be understood, as it requires the viewer to engage with concepts and forms that are not immediately recognizable or concrete.

💡Psychoanalysis

Psychoanalysis is a method of psychological investigation and treatment that was developed by Sigmund Freud. It involves the exploration of the patient's unconscious mind to uncover repressed thoughts, feelings, and experiences. In the video, Freud's psychoanalysis is presented as a challenge to Enlightenment beliefs in rationality, as it explores the irrational aspects of the human psyche, such as the id, ego, and superego.

💡Relativism

Relativism is the philosophical concept that truth and morality are not absolute but are instead relative to the individual or culture. The video mentions relativists and pragmatists who challenged positivism, arguing that there are too many variables and complexities in human behavior to establish universal social laws. This debate is presented as part of the broader intellectual upheaval of the time.

💡Positivism

Positivism is a philosophical theory stating that genuine knowledge can only be based on empirical evidence, particularly that which is obtained through the senses. In the video, positivism is contrasted with relativism, with the former suggesting that social facts and laws can be discovered to guide public policy, while the latter argues against the possibility of such objective, universal truths.

💡Quantum Theory

Quantum theory, as mentioned in the video, is a fundamental theory in physics that describes nature at the smallest scales of energy levels of atoms and subatomic particles. The video highlights Max Planck's quantum theory, which changed the understanding of energy and was part of the scientific revolution that challenged traditional views of the physical world.

💡Relativity

Relativity, specifically Einstein's theories of special and general relativity, is a concept in physics that revolutionized the understanding of space, time, and gravity. The video explains that Einstein's theories suggested space and time are not absolute but relative to the observer, and that gravity is related to mass, which had profound implications for science and technology.

💡Freudian Psychology

Freudian psychology is a school of psychoanalysis that explores the unconscious mind and its influence on human behavior. The video discusses Freud's theories on the structure of the psyche, including the id, ego, and superego, and how these concepts challenged traditional views of human rationality and the nature of sexual drives.

💡Art Nouveau

Art Nouveau is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art that was popular at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century. The video mentions Art Nouveau as a commercially advantageous style that featured curving lines and romanticized forms, and was used in the design of everyday objects and advertising, reflecting the influence of art on consumer culture.

Highlights

The twentieth century began with significant social and political upheavals, including feminist activism and challenges to traditional authority.

Modernism in arts and sciences emerged as a radical shift from traditional forms, reflecting the era's broader social changes.

Modern classical music, art, and dance rejected previous conventions, embracing abstraction and new forms of expression.

Critics initially perceived modern music as dissonant and modern dance as ungraceful, reflecting a broader resistance to change.

Artists and choreographers drew inspiration from foreign cultures, incorporating elements from Japan, Bali, and South Asia into their works.

Impressionist painters like Monet challenged the concept of 'realism' by capturing the fleeting nature of life and light.

Artists began to focus on industrial and working-class subjects, moving away from the traditional portrayal of aristocratic privilege.

The art nouveau movement, with its emphasis on organic forms and decorative arts, became a commercial success and influenced urban design.

Modernist artists like Cezanne and Picasso explored geometric forms and cultural influences, pushing the boundaries of traditional art.

Hilma af Klint's abstract paintings marked a significant departure from representational art, foreshadowing the abstract expressionist movement.

Scientific discoveries in radioactivity and quantum theory challenged the classical understanding of the physical world.

Albert Einstein's theories of relativity revolutionized our understanding of space, time, and gravity.

The influence of global ideas, particularly from colonized regions, was profound in shaping European art and thought.

Freud's psychoanalytic theories introduced the concepts of the ego, id, and superego, challenging Enlightenment views of rationality.

Nietzsche's philosophy questioned the existence of absolute truth and the decline of religious certainties.

The rise of relativism and pragmatism in social sciences challenged the positivist pursuit of universal social laws.

The modernist thinkers' ideas had diverse and sometimes tragic applications, as seen in the manipulation of Nietzsche's philosophy.

The twentieth century's disruptions in communication and truth perception may be seen as either unifying or polarizing in the future.

Transcripts

Hi I’m John Green and this is Crash Course European History.

So, the twentieth century opened with feminists smashing store windows.

The Irish were contesting British rule; Russians were challenging royal rule in the Revolution

of 1905.

The French were fighting within families and across society over the plight of Jewish colonel

Alfred Dreyfus, who’d been convicted of espionage on the basis of fabricated evidence.

And over the past few decades, anarchists had been assassinating heads of state and

members of powerful families, including the empress of Austria-Hungary.

And we’ll talk more about all these upheavals, and the ways they helped shape twentieth century

Europe, but today we want to turn to the arts, and sciences, and philosophical thought--all

of which both shaped and were shaped by the big political and social events of the day.

We often use terms like “art history” and “history of science” to separate out

scientific and artistic pursuits from political and social history, but if history is the

story of how our species got to now, the histories of art and philosophy and science are essential

to, and inseparable from, human history.

[Intro] Music, art, and dance had traditionally featured

hummable and moving tunes, realistic depictions of graceful women and noble men, and the fluttering

arms of waiflike ballerinas moving ethereally across the stage.

By 1900 all that had changed with what is now called modern classical music, modern

art, and modern dance.

The term “modernism” applies to the rejection or radical alteration of all that had come

before in the arts and in thought.

Some people see modernism as a rejection of the Enlightenment's rational approach to reality,

but others believe that aspects of modernism such as abstraction demand a higher level

of rationality.

That is, one has to use higher levels of thought in dealing with the abstract forms than concrete

ones--the idea of a number, for example, is more complicated and more interesting, than

counting.

But for contemporary audiences and critics, modern music sounded like screeching and scratching.

Song gave way, in critics’ views, to noise, even in modern dance.

The ballet dancers in “Rite of Spring” made jerking movements and pounded the floor

in so-called primitive rather than graceful ways.

Ballerinas removed their tutus and ballet-toe slippers and danced in bare feet and tunics.

Choreographers and performers claimed to create these new movements by imitating foreign dancers

seen at world fairs and in distant lands.

And similarly, composers copied instrumentation and musical forms from Japan, Bali, South

Asia, and other regions.

Audiences literally howled and walked out of these performances, but the world of dance

and music had changed forever.

As for visual art: By becoming “modern,” artists changed their style almost yearly,

or at least so it seemed to some observers.

“Make it new” was their motto, and the impressionists broke with realism in their

paintings first by having human figures appear to float, without a stable background and

without creating exact likenesses of faces, as you see in the paintings of Édouard Manet.

And then Claude Monet and his followers produced images of train stations and other urban buildings

that shimmered with flecks and dabs of color instead of clear lines and realistic shading.

They were trying to project the Japanese belief in mono non aware or the fleetingness of life.

Indistinct colors and lines gave the “impression” of nature’s constantly changing appearance

instead of stabilizing it in ]“realism,” which as the impressionists pointed out wasn’t

really real, because the real is always changing, while “realism” portrays static images.

But as with the changes in music, it appeared to outsiders that artists were losing their

grip on reality and their skill in minutely depicting the world.

Artists also increasingly focused on industrial, urban, and working-class life instead of presenting

aristocratic privilege.

Leisured patrons were replaced by workers in parks, women doing laundry and ironing,

fatigued day laborers, and the destitute.

German artist Kaethe Kollwitz angered the aristocratic upper classes by emphasizing

the frailty and suffering of the poor instead of showing the nobility of the prosperous

few.

The German Kaiser called her woodcuts “gutter art.”

But by this time, artists were earning their livelihoods from public commissions and a

new class of art dealers, not only from rich elites commissioning portraits of themselves

posing with pineapples.

another reminder that what artists end up painting has a lot to do with who ends up

buying their paint.

Many artists only scraped by--19th century artists like Vincent Van Gogh helped give

us our contemporary idea of the starving and tortured artist--but others prospered by working

in commercially advantageous styles like art nouveau, which featured curving lines of vines

and other plant life, as well as romanticized women’s bodies with long flowing hair.

Artists designed many everyday objects in the art nouveau style as well, from cutlery

to combs.

And commercial artists also produced full color advertising posters for steamship lines,

and dance halls, and cafés, and theater performances, and brands of soap and coffee.

These posters were displayed on kiosks and in other public spaces, so art nouveau brightened

everyday urban space and advanced modern phenomena such as department stores and mass consumerism

by being really effective advertising.

And even today, posters of art nouveau advertisements can be found in like one third of college

dorm rooms.

Stan says that in his experience, it’s closer to 65%, but to be fair, neither of us has

been in a dorm room in like, twenty years.

By the turn of the century, changes in art became even more radical.

Like painter Paul Cezanne depicted items like apples and oranges in geometric terms.

Bodily shapes and those in nature like mountains became planes and spheres.

Immediately following, Pablo Picasso not only used geometric splotches to portray women

but also depicted their faces as African masks.

In 1907 Swedish artist Hilma af Klint produced the first entirely abstract painting with

no relationship whatsoever to realistic forms.

and most of these artists, like the earlier impressionists, were deeply influenced by

ideas and beliefs coming from the colonized world and other distant lands.

Many would argue they were also appropriating those ideas and beliefs in much the same way

colonizers were extracting other resources.

But the impact of global ideas on European art was profound.

For example, af Klint and Norwegian Edvard Munch aimed to capture spiritual truths as

preached in theosophy—a mixture of beliefs and practices taken from Buddhist, Hindu,

Islamic, and other philosophical and religious traditions.

They used colors with meanings that were laid out in theosophical teachings.

And presenting these schemes correctly was supposed to portray inner reality.

Munch’s “The Scream” famously used line and color in ways that people believe to be

emblematic of turn-of-the-century modernism, especially the internal distress that many

felt amid the faster pace and tensions of modern life.

And there were similarly revolutionary ideas coming out of the world of science that would

upend our understanding of the world.

Let’s go to the Thought Bubble.

1.

In 1896, French physicist Antoine Becquerel discovered radioactivity.

2.

He also suggested that elements were changeable or mutable through the rearrangement of their

atoms.

3.

And then, from the discoveries of Marie Curie and her husband Pierre Curie,

4. who found the more radioactive elements polonium and radium,

5.

scientists determined that atoms are not solid.

6.

In 1900, German physicist Max Planck’s quantum theory changed people’s understanding of

energy,

7.

although like Galileo centuries earlier, his theories were not accepted at the time.

8.

And amid this revolutionary scientific universe, physicist Albert Einstein announced his special

theory of relativity in 1905.

9.

According to this theory, space and time are not absolute categories

10.

but instead vary according to the vantage point of the observer.

11.

Only the speed of light is constant.

12.

In 1915, Einstein published his general theory of relativity,

13. which connected the force, or gravity, of an object with its mass

14. and proposed a fourth mathematical dimension to the universe.

15.

And Einstein’s theories of energy became critical to all kinds of technological innovation,

from television to the nuclear bomb.

16.

As discussed in detail in our History of Science series, the findings of Planck, Einstein,

and others really created a “paradigm shift” away from the Newtonian science of the early

modern period,

17.

18.

And in many ways, we are still in the shadow of the tremendous discoveries at the turn

of the century.

Thanks Thought Bubble.

So, for a long time, scientists have made discoveries and produced theories that do

not fit with common sense, everyday interpretations of the physical world.

Right?

Did the center of the world just open?

Is there a compass in there?

This is a great example of what I mean.

We still say that the sun rises in the east and sets in the west, right?

Because practically, for us, it does.

Even though, you know, it doesn’t.

Slightly off topic, but when I close my eyes and imagine the Earth from space, I always

picture North being up, right?

Like, Antarctica is at the bottom, the North Pole is at the top.

But no!

Why?

So, inevitably, the way we need to represent the world in an everyday way, in order to

know when to turn left and when to turn right, is going to skew our understanding of the

world.

and during this revolutionary time, just as thinkers were trying to understand the relationship

between perceived reality and objective reality, they were also trying to understand the mind,

and the relationship between our interior selves, and the selves we project.

Which brings us to Freud.

Sigmund Freud questioned the Enlightenment beliefs in a rational self wedded to reasonable

decision-making and self-interest.

Because, you know, we are not rational selves wedded to reasonable decision making and self-interest.

Instead of a unified, rational persona, Freud claimed that the human self or psyche contains

three parts struggling against one another for dominance: the ego, the part centered

on realistic activity to survive; the id (or libido), the part alive with sexual energies

pushing instinctual rather than rational behavior; and the superego, the part that acts as the

conscience.

Freud developed the practice of psychoanalysis to treat the person in whom these three elements

were out of balance enough to cause mental disturbances or neuroses.

Psychoanalysis involved a “talking cure” in which the patient tried to call forth repressed

fantasies, and fears, and desires so that they might be understood and cured.

An especially controversial part of Freud’s theories stated that sexual life should be

evaluated scientifically without religious or moral judgments.

According to him, from infancy on children had sexual drives. and in order for civilization

to exist, these drives—most notably in the case of Freudian psychology, the drive toward

incest--needed to be controlled.

He also insisted that gender identity was not a straightforward entity but instead complicated

and that women like men had strong sexual feelings; they weren’t passionless, as advocates

of domesticity maintained.

Although many of Freud’s ideas have been abandoned, the influence of psychoanalysis

extends to this day.

In fact, I am visiting my therapist later this afternoon.

It’s now more common to talk with counselors and therapists to bring our problems out in

the open instead of repressing them.

We also believe in the existence of neuroses and that our selves are not composed entirely

of rationality and intellectual activity.

Just like artists crushing traditional beliefs, Freud advanced modernism by claiming that

our old ideas about the mind itself were outdated.

Simultaneously other theorists rejected the idea that science and facts could be used

to uncover social laws.

The social sciences of sociology and economics—to name just two—had developed around the pursuit

of identifying enduring laws of society.

And the belief that you can discover social facts and basic social laws to guide public

policy is called positivism, and it was challenged by those who held that there were too many

facts to compute and that humans were complex and ever changing and at times somewhat irrational

both when it came to economic choices and when it came to social ones.

I mean, How else do you explain the strange early 21st century rise of the Croc?

Those theorists called relativists and pragmatists have been in constant debate with positivists

right up until now, and if you think we’re getting in the middle of that, you’re wrong.

Can we rationally and with confidence make infallible laws?

Is a question I’m sure you’ll be commenting upon.

Probably the most scandalous theinker of the time was the German philosopher Friedrich

Nietzsche, who denied the certainty of truth, insisting that all knowledge simply represents

what humans—from scientists to shopkeepers--have perceived.

The human mind, for example, filters what nature is and presents its own sense of nature’s

truth--a human representation of reality rather than reality itself.

Nietzsche believed that absolute truths including age-old tenets of religion were in decline.

“God is dead, we have killed him” he famously announced as the result of modern understandings

of the universe.

Humans could now embark on the happy search for new “poetries of life” free from religious

and other traditional rules.

Nietzsche eventually contracted syphilis and became mentally ill, and his sister converted

the philosopher’s disdain for traditional values into attacks on Jews and support for

nationalists, and anti-Semites, and militarists--a reminder that the ideas of modernism were

tools that could be wielded in a variety of ways.Which we will see, with tragic consequences,

throughout the twentieth century.

And so the turn of the century was alive with fresh ideas, upending concepts from painting

and dance to philosophy and physics.

And we are living today in a world wrought by modern ideas, but also one that is experiencing

its own period of profound disruptions in the ways we communicate and how we understand

truth.

And that makes me wonder how our revolutionary disruptions will seem a century from now.

Will this time be remembered as one in which people grew closer together through tools

of communication?

Or will it be remembered as one in which people grew increasingly further apart as polarization

worsened?

The answer to that is partly up to you, and the choices that you will make that will shape

our shared future.

Thanks for watching.

I’ll see you next time.