HUM Final Terms (Loops)

Banality of Evil

Hannah Arendt wrote a report called “Eichmann in Jerusalem,” a report on the Banality of Evil → account of the trial of Adolf Eichmann who oversaw logistics of transportation to camps → evil is ordinary; Eichmann wasn’t overtly malicious, just thoughtless, blind adherence, the concept of being misled to doing evil things but not really seeing them as that bad.

The paradox of evil being done by ordinary people

Marxism

Ideology based on Karl Marx’s writings and ideas

History is about the struggle of the proletarian (working class) against the bourgeoisie.

The bourgeois use religion and other distractions to control the masses (drug of the masses).

History must be seen through the lens of material production, and who has control of that, and the social struggle between those who own the means of production and those who do the work to produce, who are no better than slaves and only have value if they can work. 

Death of God

Friedrich Nietzsche’s concept (promoted in his Parable of the Madman) that belief in transcendent, omnipotent God has declined, and loss of the belief in a universal truth

→ since God is dead, traditional values and meaning in life is gone, humanity killed God

→ statement of cultural phenomenon of 19th century Europe resulting from Enlightenment

Secularization

Declining power of religious beliefs, values, institutions, and subsequent decline of religious practice

→ 19th century: Marx, Darwin, Nietzsche, Freud - evolution contributed

→ higher biblical criticism applied scientific methods to the study of the Bible, undermined its authority

Hypnopaedia

Concept from A Brave New World. Conditioning statements (during sleep) that shape thoughts and behaviours → replaces family, religion, struggle for artificial experiences/thoughts - ideological control

Idea of Progress

Human history is the story of inevitable advancement (Macaulay) - bubble popped in the 20th century

Moralistic Therapeutic Deism

A concept developed by a team of researchers as the common, shared “religion” by US teenagers. In it the purpose of life is to be happy through moral action. God exists but in a distant, uninvolved way, with the exception being to serve/ help people and “make us feel better.”

Barmen Declaration

A declaration made as the Christian response to the changes that the Nazi party wanted to make in the church. It restated that the Church belongs to God, not the state, that the state is not the ultimate thing, Church leaders are not political leaders, and backed all these claims in Biblical truth.

Romanticism

Movement of those disillusioned with the Industrial revolution and Enlightenment, who wanted to return to a state of artistic and political freedom, imagination, subjectivity, the personal self, solitude, myths and dreams, and nature as both muse and the divine. 

Father of the romantic period considered Rousseau. 

Social Contract

An agreement made by humanity to let go of some of their individual power to give it to a ruler - and this is what sets humanity apart as a civilized race.

Proposed by Thomas Hobbes in the Leviathan, it states that power to rule comes from individuals (contrast to divine right monarchy) and also that having a ruler means power must be in the hands of the ruler, which aligns with and builds off of Machiavelli’s ideas in The Prince.

Enlightenment

What is it?

• Period of time from 1650s-1750s where people “dared to know” using just their reason, and not direction from others (think Descartes). 

Why does it matter to HUM 120?

• It led to many important shifts in western culture, such as the french revolution, genocides, wars, etc. 

• Bubble of enlightened progress popped in the 20th century 

Declaration of the Rights of Man

The French version of the Declaration of Independence. It argues: 

• Human rights are unalienable

• Have the right to disband government

• Identity is tied to nation and human rights

• Right to Liberty, Property, Security, and Resistance to opposition

• Liberty= freedom to do anything as long as it doesn’t hurt anyone (what hurts people is defined by law, and the law is defined by the people/general will).

Der Übermensch - the superman

Nietzsche’s concept of a person who can grow beyond their social conditioning and define their own “right,” and dare to be a god unto themselves. - Individual need for strength and excellence

Delacroix, “Liberty leading the people”

A painting depicting the July Revolution in Paris. It shows a variety of people and general destruction (cost of the revolution) surrounding a half-naked woman representing France and its rebirth.

Bourgeoisie

The upper class who own the means of production, and want to suppress the working class and distract them from their class disadvantage - according to Marx

Imperialism

Practice of a nation extending power and influence over other territories often through colonization, military conquest, etc. It was one of the main causes of WW1

Industrial Revolution

The advance in technology (specifically steam power) that shaped how we relate to the world and culture. It also caused a shift in the population, with more people flocking to the cities. Lead to more rampant capitalism and the rise of the working class. 

Nihilism

Concept from Friedrich Nietzsche countering modernism 

Rejection of moral and religious principles - radical implications (life is meaningless)

Dulce et Decorum Est

Poem by Wilfred Owen which depicts a gas attack during WW1, and calls out the British advertising of the war as a “sweet and fitting” way to serve your country. It is meant to bring people out of their devotion to the intellectual projects that are behind the war effort, like nationalism, and create an attitude of cynicism about war. 

White Man’s Burden

The obligation of the “superior” civilization and cultures to “help” the lesser ones along - savior complex

• Came out of social Darwinism

Social Darwinism

Darwin's concepts applied to societies (not biology) and race relations. Advanced people's “responsibility” to “help” other civilizations - justification for colonialism. Resulted in WWI and WWII issues (holocaust) and the eugenics movements

White Rose

A resistance movement against the Nazi party started by University students Hans and Sophie Scholl, who sought to promote anti-Hitler ideas and organize the church. They were found, told to recant and then executed.

Reign of Terror

Period after/ during the French Revolution where the Committee on Public Safety, run by Robespierre, rounded up, tortured, and executed anyone they suspected were “against the revolution.” Included the reinstatement of censorship and the rejection of religion. 

Eugenics

The concept of creating a superior race through physical evaluation of people for the quality of their genes and forcibly sterilizing the “unfit.”

• Came out of Social Darwinism

“Born this Way”

Song by Lady Gaga that reflects many modern ideas as well as ideas from throughout the course

• Perfection and idealism of youth (Rousseau)

• Attention to sexuality (Freud) 

• Emphasis on individual interpretation (Enlightenment)

• Pluralistic (no “correct” way)

• Hyper-individualism

Rationalism

The concept that through reason one can understand everything - an inner way of understanding the world 

• Descartes as the father of rationalism

“History is Bunk”

Phrase from Brave New World, from the controller, that reflects the danger of individual knowledge. Dictators desire to write their own stories and histories. 

Oedipus/ Oedipal Complex

One of Freud’s major contributions to Western thought. Idea is that a child develops sexual feelings for the opposite parent and begins to hate the same sex parent.

Modernity

A historical period characterized by modernist ideas such as individualism, secularization, and science/ reason. 

• Social Darwinism as the peak

Relativism

The concept that morality and truth is relative to each society and historical period. It developed in relation to Nietzsche’s nihilism as a response to modernism. `