Art/Science/Reform
Charles Darwin -2 influential books 1) “On the Origin of Species” (1859) 2) “Decentive Man” (1877) -Focused on what he was interested in -Makes a voyage on a ship named HMS Beagle to the Galapagos Islands. He made Discoveries about Finches – he writes about this in “On the Origin of Species.” -People who were into these types of discoveries were known as Naturalists or Scientists. Science was seen as a hobby -Religious -Firm creationists -His discoveries made him change his religious viewpoint -Because of him, science starts to become respected -He only talks about these controversial ideas with his closest friends

T. H. Huxley -one of Darwin’s closest friends -His nickname was “Darwins Bulldog” -Had a middle class background -He was trying to live as a scientist. He was angry because science wasn’t respected. -Says science is all facts while religion is something where you can say whatever you want. -He pushes Darwin to publish “On the Origin of Species” (he doesn’t publish it until 20 years later) -He was aggressive and said he would defend Darwin -This all leads to religious doubt

Scientists are agnostics – don’t know if there is a God or not. There is no proof and evidence is not available to determine if there is or isn’t a God.

German Higher Criticism -A bunch of philosophers of the 1870s basically trying to save the Bible from science fiction -Argue that you have to get rid of the things that are purely supernatural elements to save the Bible -You don’t want to throw out the whole Bible – there’s still a lot of relevant things -Morals, ethics and legal codes are still relevant

Social Darwinism -Application of Darwins idea to society -“Survival of the fittest” – competition in natural world

Realism (Naturalism) -Realistic art vs idealized art