| 1. |
Focus Question: How did the view of science change during the nineteenth century? |
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At the mid-19th century, how did learned persons view the world? How were the laws of science discovered? When did Western intellectuals begin to portray science differently? |
| 2. |
Focus Question: What is the nature of Darwin's theory of natural selection and how did he arrive at it? |
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What type of interpretation did Charles Darwin present of physical nature in his 1859 work, Origin of Species? Did Darwin first propose the theory of evolution? Who besides Darwin, formulated at more or less the same time, the theory of natural selection? How does natural selection work, according to Darwin? How did Darwin explain chance variations that provided some living things with new traits? Who explained the principles of hereditary? What were the implications of Darwin's and Wallace's mechanistic theory on the previously held belief system? How did Darwin conceive the development of humankind's moral are religious sentiments? |
| 3. |
Focus Question: What were the principle "revolutionary" concepts in nineteenth-century physics? |
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In what respect did physicists challenge the mechanistic view of the universe? Who discovered X rays? Who formulated the theory of the electron? How did Ernest Rutherford explain radiation in 1902? How did Max Planck, Albert Einstein and Werner Heisenberg change the basic concepts of Newtonian physics? Why has science become increasingly unintelligible to the masses? |
| 4. |
Focus Question: What fundamental problem did Friedrich Nietzche have with the nature of rational thinking? |
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With what values of his era did Nietzsche find himself at odds? What was Nietzsche's position in The Birth of Tragedy (1872)? Where does Nietzsche believe that the strength to live heroically and achieve great art arises? What was Nietzsche's objection to democracy and Christianity? What type of values did Nietzsche wish to create? What did Nietzsche hope to foster in a new moral order? How would this reflect his studies as a classicist? |
| 5. |
Focus Question: What is the nature of Freud's development of psychoanalysis? |
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What common goal did major figures in the late 19th-century share? Where did Freud live and practice? What were Freud's earliest medical interests? Freud abandoned hypnosis for what method? What was the nature of Freud's theory of infantile sexuality? What was Freud's theory of dreams? What was the nature of Freud's model of the mind? What three elements constituted the mind, and what role did they play? Why didn't Freud believe that humans could/should simply throw off all repression? |
| 6. |
Focus Question: How did late 19th century European thinkers interpret Islam, and how did Islam relate to Europeans? |
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How did Ernest Renan and Max Weber view Muslim scientific development? What was Jamal al-din Al-Afghani's counter argument? Why didn't more Muslim convert to Christianity? What activities did Christian missionaries undertake in Muslim lands? What different responses did Islamic leaders offer to modernization and Western scientific ideas? Where was opposition to the West and modern thought strongest in the Muslim world? Why? |