HIS109Y1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Edvard Munch, Solipsism, Scientism
Document Summary
In the 19th century, a series of events indicated that progress wasn"t linear, but is at most a bumpy road, and it is equally possible that progress could be reversed, and we might slip back into barbarism. The reason for this is how they were culturally, and in many instances personally shattered, by their defeat in the franco-prussian war. That was bad, but the effects of the war, including the paris commune, the violence, the destruction, the burning of much of the historic centre of paris, frenchman had felt betrayed, dejected. This generation was called by one of their most pessimistic but observant of their number. Maurice varez he argued that his generation had been torn away from their roots in reason and progress by their terrible events, and that they no longer had any faith in anything. Many of them looked to pessimism the world isn"t progressing, the world is declining.
