1.
What things outraged modern mind ?
11 Gictorian literature had lost its ima
Answers
Answer:
please follow me meeeeeee
Answer:
Things like
Explanation:
A I? E w Y E A R s A c o I gave a talk on the
modern mind to the Medical Section of the
British Psychological Society, by which my
audience seemed to be disappointed, and my
chairtru~n said so. They had hoped for something
more substantial, he said, "something to get
one's teeth into." From his point of view he was
pursuit of a moral purpose, namely of a relent·
less intellectual honesty. The two conflicting
ideas of our age-its scepticism and its moral
passions-are indeed locked in a curious struggle
in which they may combine and reinforce each
other. Thls is a strange story.
right. For I spoke of the modern mind as a body THE BECO."'NlNCS of modern scepticism go back
of ideas having their origin in thought, while in to ancient Greece, but its present overpowering
his profession he was used to regarding ideas as strength is the sequel of the Copernican Revohr
the rationalisation of drives, of guilt fc:ding, or tion. Copernicus ousted man from his central
anxiety, or aggression, or insecurity. Such a view position in the universe and destroyed the theois widespread. Here too it may be fdt that I am logical cosmos. The heavenly sphere of divine
not dealing with the ungible forces determining perfection towards which, from his fallen su~
the mind. When I go on ignoring infantile lunar e>dstence, man w:u bound to strive, was
traumas, broken homes, industrialisation, many dissolved in a space without limits, without
may feel lost in a world of shadows. shape or centre.
In a way I should welcome such opposition, And monotony in space was extended into
as it would help to establish my first point which monotony in depth, by the atomic theory of
is that the modern mind distrusts intangiblc: matter. Galileo's mechanics, amplified by Newthings and looks behind them for tangible ton, gave new life to the theory that aU things
matters on which it relies for understanding the are ultimatdy composed of masses in motion.
world. We are a tough-minded generation. Atomic particles alone were rc2l and all phenoMy second point makes a curious pair with the mena were merely appC3ranccs of this ultimate
first. For it is that in spite of our tough theories, rC31ity. Man himself was but a chance colloutioa
our society is more humane than any that had of atoms, without purpose or meaning.
existed before. And if our terrible wars and Yet the new fellow-feeling, the other masterrevolutions are cited against this, l would reply idea of modern man standing opposite to scepti·
in the words of Paul Tillich: "U ever in history dsm. w2S borne indirectly from scepticism. For
there was a time when human objectives sup- it was the attack of scepticism on the Christian
ported by an infinite amount o£ good·will churches that released the moral ideals of
heaped disaster upon disaster on mankind, it is Christianity from a striving for individual salva·
the twentieth century." I would say that the tion and directed our moral conscience inscead to
ideals, the genuineness of which our scepticism the betterment of human society. The imaginahas taught us to question, have in £act swayed lion of the new rationalism was soon to be
our time and by their power have almost shat- aflame with aspirations for a higher condition of
tercd our civilisation. man and society.
I would go further and <1dd th:::t, if our seep- Throughout all previous ages men had
ticism itself goes to extremes, it does so in 2 accepted existing custom and law as the