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Modernity, Moral Sources, & Atomism
2/16/2011 1
Transformations in our Sense of Self
Setting the Stage
• Global warming solutions require major changes
• What shapes our moral playing field?
• What shapes our sense of a higher good?
• Evolutionary Perspective
• Today: Historical perspective
– Modernity & Atomism– Modernity & Atomism
– Moral Sources
– Goals:
• Open up deeper perspective on current behavior
• critique current thinking
• explore other possibilities
Lecture Overview
• Discussion – Exploring Moral Sources
– Deep values/assumptions shape thinking
• Lecture Overview: – Modernity
– Atomism• Descartes
• Freud
• Maslow
• Emerson
– Moral sources
– Dangerous of Modernity• Wachtel
• Advertising discussion
Modernity
• Historical period, including present
• Post-traditional, post-medieval period
• Defining Changes
– Rural � Urban
– Agriculture � Industrial
– Religious � Secular
– Feudal � Nation-State
Modernity
• Defining elements– Enlightenment
– Rationalization
– Technology
– Democracy
– Individualism
– Atomization
I. Transformations of Modernity:
1. Reformation (1520)
– Challenge to church’s monolithic authority
– From Latin to Vernacular
– Individual Bibles
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– Individual Bibles
– Diversity & Pluralism
– Subjectivizes Belief
• We Believe to…
• I Believe
Modernity -- Transformations
2. Political Revolutions (1776 & 1789)
– Challenged divine right of kings
– Sovereignty shifts:
• King to people
• People to individual
– Individual Rights
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– Individual Rights
• Inherent
• Inalienable
• Self-possessing
• Transcendent
• Foundational
Modernity -- Transformations
3. Scientific Revolution (~1600)
– Understand nature
– Control nature
– Reductionism
– Instrumental knowledge
– Technology
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– Technology
Modernity -- Transformations
4. Industrial Revolution (~1800)
Farm to Factory; Village to City
Independent Wealth
Labor Mobility
Control of Nature
Technological Power
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II. Modernity transforms Self: Atomism
– Demise of community, place, religion
– Individualization
• Identity
• Authority
• Power
– Celebrate unique identity
– New forms of being
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– New forms of being
• New technologies (cars, a/c, 401K, iphone)
• New institutions (career & family)
• New moral sources
– Instrumental individualism
– Expressive individualism
Modern Self – Inward Focus
• Inward Shift
– Plato – Change direction of the soul’s vision
– Descartes – “I think therefore I am” (1637)
We may find a practical philosophy by means of which, knowing the fore
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We may find a practical philosophy by means of which, knowing the fore and the action of fire, water, air, the stars, heavens and all other bodies that environ us, as distinctly as we know the different crafts of our artisans, we can in the same way employ them in all those uses to which they are adapted, and thus render ourselves the masters and possessors of nature.”
Self employs reason as tool, no longer mere means of appreciation
Cartesian view: Dualism & Disengament
• Objectify world, divide body from mind, emotions from reason
– World disenchanted – seek control
– Reject natural order (teleology) – worldly merely mechanistic
• Disengaged reasoning
– Be objective, reject passions (emotions)
– “Be reasonable” – master your emotions
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– “Be reasonable” – master your emotions
– Freewill is noblest thing; independence & self-control
– Reason as method, tool, deployed by independent mind
Freud’s Disengagement
• Freud’s “Physics”
– objectifies internal space of mind
– 3 separate components:
• Id
• Superego
• Ego
– psychoanalysis – a method for knowing/controlling
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– psychoanalysis – a method for knowing/controlling
• Understand solely through internal dynamics
• Mechanistic
• Control self
• Clinical detachment, objectify problems, no higher good
• Extension of Cartesian view
Emerson’s Self-Reliance
• Ralph Waldo Emerson 1803-1882
• Self Reliance (1841)
• Transcendentalist – Nature Romanticized
• New Englander
• Former Unitarian Preacher
• Radical/Unconventional • Radical/Unconventional
• Conservative? Anti-abolitionist
• Stately Home, Upper Class
• Sued deceased wife’s family
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Emerson Preaches Atomism
Insist on yourself; never imitate... Every great man is unique.
Make the most of yourself, for that is all there is of you.
Nothing can bring you peace but yourself.
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Emerson in Context
• Moral Sources
– Expressive Individualism
– Utilitarian Individualism
– (secular) Moral preacher
– Blindspots? Poor, Slavery (self first!)
• Advances Protestant Reformation
– Diminishes authority of church/society– Diminishes authority of church/society
– God transposed – Sacred individuality
• Consumerism Foundation
– Need Tools of Self-Expression and Individuation
– Youth Culture; Novelty
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Maslow’s Humanism (and Transcenders)
• Humanistic Psychology
– Against Freudian/Psychoanalytic/Depth Psychology (too negative)
– Against Behaviorism (too mechanical)
• Hierarchy of Needs
– From Basic (hunger/thirst) to…
– Self-Actualization
• Realism• Realism
• Spontaneity
• External, problem-centered focus
• Autonomy
• Ethical sensitivity
• Openness to experience
• Downside?
• Late Maslow: Transcenders / Transpersonal Psychology
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III. Moral Sources
• What forms of consumption most problematic?– What ideas/ideals/moral frameworks drive consumption in modern,
Western society?
• 1. Utilitarian Individualism (Modern)• Ideals of disengaged reasoning, self-mastery (the punctual self), dignity