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Introduction to Contemporary Civilization; A Syllabus
Introduction to Contemporary Civilization A Syllabus Author:Columbia University General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1921 Original Publisher: Columbia University Press Subjects: Civilization History / General History / Historiography History / World History / Civilization History / Essays Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and t... more »here may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: SECOND DIVISION SURVEY OF THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE PRESENT AGE BOOK III. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF CONTEMPORARY CIVILIZATION, 1400-1870 Introduction: The fundamental conceptions of the present age. Man's nature in its original character remains unchanged from the dawn of history, and nature in its basic resources has not altered greatly. But man's store of knowledge has increased, and in the western world new conceptions have arisen so important as to be considered new tools which human beings use when they attempt to control their situation. These conceptions will be shown in their development in Book III. They are presented here for the sake of preliminary emphasis. A. The belief in the value of the scientific study of man and nature -- the intellectual revolution. (a) The early emphasis on knowledge as power -- Francis Bacon and the Renaissance scientists. (6) The exact study of specific activities shows the fashion in which men and things behave, and makes possible the limited control of natural forces and human nature. () New. ton and the i8th century conception of nature and natural law. () Belief in human progress through a scientific study of man -- psycholo- gists, political philosophers, and economists of the iSth century. (c) The expansion of the method of inquiry to the place of man in nature -- development of biology in the ipth century and the theory of evolution. (d) The application of scientific...« less