2nd+American+philosophical+movements+of+the+1930’s

American philosophical movements of the 1930's

**What is philosophy?**

 * Philosophy is defined as the rational investigation of the truths and principles of being, knowledge, or conduct. **

**Types of philosophy:**

 * Surrealism** LB
 * Pragmatism** MM
 * Positivism** AG
 * Logical Empiricism** KA

What was going on in the **1930's**?

**The Great Depression** (1929-39) was the deepest and longest-lasting economic downturn in the history of the Western industrialized world.

**Philosophy's** **role**: Investigation Trying to find a way out How to fix the situation

(AG) (MM)


 * Surrealism** is defined as "a 20th century movement in art and literature that sought to release the creative potential of the unconscious mind." In simple terms, surrealism is a 20th century art form in which an artist or writer combines unrelated images or events in a very strange and dreamlike way. This cultural movement began in the 1920's.


 * Surrealist Literature**


 * James Cornell ** - an American artist and sculptor, he was also an experimental filmmaker influenced by surrealists. He created // Rose Hobart // in 1936, which was a 19 minute film that was originally // East of Borneo // cut and re-edited. This film became one of America's most famous surrealist short films.


 * Dorothea Tanning ** - an American painter, sculptor, w [[image:http://cdn2.all-art.org/art_20th_century/surrealist_art/tanning/45.jpg width="148" height="193" align="left" caption="external image 45.jpg"]] riter, and poet. Her early work was influenced greatly by surrealism. She was also married Max Ernst who was also a surrealist painter and sculptor. Her painting, Maternity, shows a woman with a child and at her feet, a poodle with a child's face


 * Jackson Pollock** - an American painter. Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, he was well known for his drip painting method. He experimented a lot with surrealist art in the early 1930s.

(LB)


 * Pragmatism** is a philosophical tradition that began in the United States around 1870. Pragmatism is a rejection of the idea that the function of thought is to describe, represent, or mirror reality. Instead, pragmatists develop their philosophy around the idea that the function of thought is as an instrument or tool for prediction, action, and problem solving. Pragmatists believe that most philosophical topics like the nature of knowledge, language, concepts, meaning, belief, and science are what was called practical uses and successes.

In other words!! Pragmatists base things off reality using knowledge, experience, ad interactions. Charles Sanders Peirce was an American philosopher, logician, mathematician, and scientist, sometimes known as "the father of pragmatism". He was educated as a chemist and employed as a scientist for 30 years. American philosopher and psychologist who was also trained as a physician. The first educator to offer a psychology course in the United States. James was one of the leading thinkers of the late nineteenth century and is believed by many to be one of the most influential philosophers the United States has ever produced, while others have labelled him the "Father of American psychology".
 * CLASSICAL PRAGMATISTS:**
 * Charles Sanders Peirce(1839–1914)**
 * William James(1842–1910)**
 * John Dewey(1859–1952)**
 * America’s foremost philosopher and intellectual in the 1930′s, leader of Pragmatism. American philosopher, psychologist, and educational reformer whose ideas have been influential in education and social reform.**

(MM)

**Positivism** is a philosophical system that holds that every rationally justifiable assertion can be scientifically verified or is capable of logical or mathematical proof, and that therefore rejects metaphysics and theism.

"Positivism developed as a response to the religious and magical understanding of the world during the middle age period" "True knowledge is only found through science and the best way to study society is based on the scientific method."



=**POSITIVISTS**=

[[image:http://cstms.berkeley.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/kuhn.jpg width="167" height="97" align="left"]]**Thomas Kuhn**
Kuhn wrote a powerful book stating his beliefs and brought it into the circle of historical and social assessment. His ideas were adopted by many other scholars and logical empiricists.



** Hilary Putnam **
Putnam stated scientific realism as the stance that science achieves true, or approximately true, knowledge of the world. Science = Knowledge

(AG)


 * Logical Empiricist or Logical Positivism ** is a movement that started in america in the 40's and 50's but originated in Vienna in the 20's and 30's and stated that the only factual knowledge was scientific knowledge. In simpler words if science can't justify it than it isn't real. (KA)

A few of the original members were... Herbert Feigl Philipp Frank Kurt Gödel Otto Neurath Friedrich Waismann
 * Vienna Circle ** was a group of philosophers, scientists, and mathematicians that was created in the 1920's who would investigate scientific language and scientific methodology. The philosophical movement that was connected with this group was called Logical Empiricist or Logical Positivism.(KA)

The son of well-known philosopher, Roy Wood Sellars, he studied at Buffalo, Oxford, and Harvard. Sellars then attended Iowa, Minnesota, Yale, and Pittsburgh. Born in Detroit, Salmon first became interested in theology, and later got his PhD under Reichenbach at UCLA. He also taught at many different universities including Brown, Arizona and Pittsburgh. An American philosopher of science, mathematics, mind and language. He also attended UCLA and earned his doctorate.He later taught at Princeton, MIT, and Harvard.
 * American Philosop **** hers/Participants in this movement **
 * Wilfrid Sellars (1912–1989) **
 * Wesley Salmon (1925–2001). **
 * Hilary Putnam (1926–) **



(KA)

Questions:
How do the different types of philosophy connect? What type of philosophy makes more sense? Do you think that the philosophy helped us get through the Great Depression? (AG)

Sources (LB) http://www.tfaoi.com/aa/3aa/3aa618.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surrealism http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rose_Hobart_(film) http://www.all-art.org/art_20th_century/tanning1.html http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/02/arts/design/dorothea-tanning-surrealist-painter-dies-at-101.html?_r=0 http://www.absolutearts.com/masters/names/Pollock_Jackson.html

(AG) http://www.loyno.edu/~folse/logpos.htm https://www.google.com/#q=American+philosophers+in+the+1930s+who+believed+in+positivism+ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logical_positivism#People http://cstms.berkeley.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/kuhn.jpg http://tomkow.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/2008/08/26/hilary_putnam_4.jpg http://researchmeth.wikispaces.com/Positivism+and+Interpretivism http://www.history.com/topics/great-depression

(KA) [] [] [|http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/logical-empiricism/#SomRepPar] [][|q=logical+positivism&tbm=isch&source=lnms&sa=X&ei=YOMQU_yvLKflyAHfvoGoBw&ved=0CAkQ_AUoAw&biw=1280&bih=941#q=logical+empiricism&tbm=isch&facrc=_&imgdii=_&imgrc=ToPx5tUdTx8kZM%253A%3Bp0e53MAiB8fYfM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwalkingchristiancom.ipage.com%252Fwalkingchristian%252Fwp-content%252Fuploads%252F2012%252F10%252Fscientism-refuted.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwalkingchristian.com%252F2012%252F10%252F16%252Fthe-despair-of-scientism%252F%3B640%3B566]