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TJ123-8-2009 LK VWD0011 Tradition Humanistic 6th Edition W:220mm x H:292mm 175L 115 Stora Enso M/A Magenta (V)LOOKING AHEAD
Late Nineteenth-Century
Thought
READING 31. 1
112 CHAPTER 31 The Move Toward Modernism112
During the last quarter of the nineteenth century, France emerged
as the center of Western artistic production. Paris became the
melting pot for artists and intellectuals, composers and journal-
ists. London and Paris hosted World’s Fairs that brought the arts
and cultures of Japan, Africa, and Oceania to the attention of
astonished Westerners. In an era of relative world peace and
urban prosperity, Western artists were preoccupied with the
pleasures of life and the fleeting world of the senses. They initi-
ated styles—Symbolism, Impressionism, and Postimpressionism
—that neither idealized the world nor described it literally. Much
of their art was driven by aesthetic principles that—similar to
music—communicated no specific meaning, but rather, evoked
feeling by way of pure form and color. Their goals were described
by Walter Pater in 1868 with the slogan l’art pour l’art, or “art for
art’s sake.”
Late nineteenth-century science and technology helped to
drive this new approach in the arts. The last decades of the cen-
tury saw the invention of synthetic oil paints available in portable
tubes. In 1873, the British physicist James Clerk Maxwell
(1831–1879) published his Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism,
which explained that light waves consisting of electromagnetic
particles produced radiant energy. In 1879, after numerous fail-
ures, the American inventor Thomas Edison (1847–1931) moved
beyond scientific theory to create the first efficient incandescent
light bulb. Edison’s light bulb provided a sharper perception of
reality that—along with the camera—helped to shatter the world
of romantic illusion. By the year 1880, the telephone transported
the human voice over thousands of miles. In the late 1880s,
Edison developed the technique of moving pictures. The invention
of the internal combustion engine led to the production of auto-
mobiles in the 1890s, a decade that also witnessed the invention
of the X-ray and the genesis of radiotelegraphy. Such technolo-
gies accelerated the tempo of life and drew attention to the role
of the senses in defining experience.Nietzsche’s New Morality
The most provocative thinker of the late nineteenth
century was the German philosopher and poet Friedrich
Wilhelm Nietzsche (1844–1900). Nietzsche was a
Classical philologist, a professor of Greek at the university
of Basle, and the author of such notable works as The Birthof Tragedy(1872), Thus Spoke Zarathustra(1883–1892),
and On the Genealogy of Morals(1887). In these, as in his
shorter pieces, Nietzsche voiced the sentiments of the rad-
ical moralist. Deeply critical of his own time, he called for
a revision of traditional values. He rejected organized reli-
gion, attacking Christianity and other institutionalized
religions as contributors to the formation of a “slave moral-
ity.” He was equally critical of democratic institutions,
which he saw as rule by mass mediocrity. His goal for
humanity was the emergence of a “superman” (Übermen-
sch), whose singular vision and courage would, in his view,
produce a “master” morality.
Nietzsche did not launch his ideas in the form of a well-
reasoned philosophic system, but rather as aphorisms, max-
ims, and expostulations whose visceral force bear out his
claim that he wrote “with his blood.” Reflecting the spiri-
tual cynicism of the late nineteenth century, he asked, “Is
man merely a mistake of God’s? Or God merely a mistake
of man’s?”
Nietzsche shared with Dostoevsky the view that
European materialism had led inevitably to decadence
and decline. In The Antichrist, published in 1888, shortly
before Nietzsche became insane (possibly a result of
syphilis), he wrote:
Mankind does not represent a development toward
something better or stronger or higher in the sense
accepted today. “Progress” is merely a modern idea,
that is, a false ideal. The European of today is vastly
inferior in value to the European of the Renaissance:
further development is altogether not according to
any necessity in the direction of elevation,
enhancement, or strength.
The following readings demonstrate Nietzsche’s incisive
imagination and caustic wit. The first, taken from The
Gay Science(1882) and entitled “The Madman,” is a para-
ble that harnesses Nietzsche’s iconoclasm to his gift for
prophecy. The others, excerpted from Twilight of the Idols
(or How One Philosophizes with a Hammer, 1888), address
the fragile relationship between art and morality and the
art for art’s sake spirit of the late nineteenth century.From the Works of Nietzsche
The Gay Science(1882)
The Madman.Have you not heard of that madman who lit a 1
lantern in the bright morning hours, ran to the market place,
and cried incessantly, “I seek God! I seek God!” As many of
those who do not believe in God were standing around just
then, he provoked much laughter. Why, did he get lost? said
one. Did he lose his way like a child? said another. Or is he
hiding? Is he afraid of us? Has he gone on a voyage? or
emigrated? Thus they yelled and laughed. The madman jumped
into their midst and pierced them with his glances.
“Whither is God” he cried. “I shall tell you. We have killed 10
him—you and I. All of us are his murderers. But how have we
done this? How were we able to drink up the sea? Who gave
us the sponge to wipe away the entire horizon? What did we