• political
• social
• economic

• natural innate rights gained by virtue of being born
• freedom of expression
• property
• self-determination
• locke

• puts the individual at center of concern
• how can you organize society so that there is maximum individual liberty?

• maximum individual freedom
• laissez faire
• minimal intervention and regulation
• let the free market set prices
• let people choose freely how they want to work
• low taxes

• applies notion of empiricism to politics; particles strike the brain and are responsible for thoughts.
• it is not the role of legislatures to describe what is morally good, people have their own impressions of this
• maximum good through human pleasure
• qualified by what humans selfishly want
• goal of governing is to maximize pleasure
• felicific calcus: the greatest good for the greatest number

• the greatest good for the greatest number
• utilitarian
• selfishness can be a positive force in society
• private vice can be a public good.

• democracy does not rely on natural rights
• criteria of maximizing the greatest pleasures
• we vote selfishly according to interests
• secular basis of government

• on liberty (1859)
  
• free speech based on unitarianism not natural rights
  
• public good through individual good
• richest diversity-full individuality
  
• regards utility as the ultimate appeal on all ethical questions
• Maximum individual liberty
  • prove harm to others for intervene
    
• what is right and wrong-conformity-by emphasizing eccentricity and resisting social pressure to greater truth about matters
• marketplace ideas-if things are so wrong they will be discredited by rational people
• conformity=social tyranny of mass communication/education.

On Liberty

• john Stuart Mill
• defense of free speech based on utilitarianism and not natural rights
• limit freedom when harm done to others
• social tyranny of mass media/education/affluence/mobility
• excentricity-resist conformity
  

• Tocqueville
• the effect of equality in population is greater conformity, "the new despotism"
• lack of freedom of thought that operates from inside each individual
• complacent conformity- going along with the majority
• afraid to assert individuality, loss of public interest, citizen apathy
• tendency to want to delegate to elective officials, erosion of peoples rights
• defenses against tyranny of the majority-free press, strong judiciary, public local orgs, religion

• ideas themselves are the consequences of economic relations-key to unlocking the movement of history
• There is no state of nature-always some economic arrangement trading, buying, selling, in ideas.
  
• class struggle fuels history
• Fall of capitalism is inevitable because it thrives on expansion, creating new needs
  •  exponential production to meet growing need
  • the establishment of new markets
  • proletariat are alienated by their labor unable to enjoy the benefits of their product
    • psychological effect of being forced to work-develop a class consciousness and will ultimately rebel

• cours de philosophie positive (1842)
• positivism
• society has six fields of science and views these fields with regard to three stages
• board of experts rather than democracy

• Comte
• the social key is accepting that through science we can understand human society

close idea to realism

1)Theological

2)Metaphysical

3)Scientific

• religious look at the heavens
• God moves the heavens, the sun is god

• deriving philosophical ideas from physics

• positivism
• humans moving out of false world of understanding
• scientific laws emerge that can explain everything in all fields fields
• finally understanding how society works
• entirely secular and non-theoretical account of all phenomenon

1. mathematics
2. astronomy
3. physics
4.  chemisry
5. physiology
6.  social physics

Eugene Delacroix- "The Death of Sardanapalus"

• Romanticism
• Death of ruler Syrian king in ancient Mesopotamia, rule coming to an end because invaders were coming, king gives orders that all members be killed, mythic, heroic, voluptious,
• great movement, curves, flesh, interest, fascination, strangely despite the subject it is not ugly, color and richness depict detail and story

Gustave Courbet- "The Stone Breakers"

• Realism
• The claustrophobic feeling
• depiction of a common man
  

Gustave Courbet- "Burial at Ornans"

• realism
• long and not tall, burial scene, white sleeves of undertaker, viewers situated at odd poing, grave is at our feet given perspective, eyes drawn naturally to brightest parts of canvas, little boy not listening or aware, jusdges with red hats, women strange motion of heads, become vaguely aware of crucifix man is holding, low sky, insulting dog in frame, irreverent to the dead, deflates religious sentiment
  

El Greco- "Burial of Count Orgaz"

• might be coincidence with corbet, true vision of christ, complete theological picture.
• two sections- heavenly above, terrestrial below
• Spanish Renaissance
  

Edward Manet- "olympia"

• Realism
• controversial, confrontational blank stare, speculation of prostitution, scandalous, impressionist breaking with conventional ways, blocks of dark define clear lines, naked not nude, nothing idealized about body form no modesty or glamour, bold stare, sharp contrast with David
  

Edouard Manet- "Bar at the Folies-Bergeres"

• Forced to solve puzzle, back relection much more engaged, angle of reflection confusing
• trapeze artist in background
• woman has a different posture in background

Edgar Degas- "Absinthe Drinker"

• highly addictive, does brain damage, crack of the 19th century, not the color of the liquid in her glass, looks like she is hung over, defeated look on her face, no depth, out of proportion, no legs, looks like morning light, closed in and helpless
• impressionism
  

Claude Monet- "Rouen Cathedral"

• impressionism
• Impression can be art, took up the name impressionists, whether or not you know about the art it can be pleasing, does not have to have a highter meaning, sensually rich, colorfyl, decomposing of the subject, less to literal truth and to the elements underlying, end of realism, less like the world as we see it, elements of colors and shapes.
  

• Herbert Spencer
• coined the term "survival of the fittest"
• had society in mind not nature, some member are better fitted to capitalist society because of their qualities(morality, habits, work ethic)
• fittest will survive and those who are not will not survive, we shouldn't worry about the people who don't if we want progress, policy against state welfare, helping unemployed.
• intervention in the competitive process of social darwinism only holds back the natural progress of that society
• if you mitigate the system then those who have not succeeded economically through their own fault will reproduce.
• leads to eugenics, coined by Francis Galton, we should think about encouraging certain groups to produce and discourage others, perhaps sterilization for the sake of society.

• on the equality of races (1851-54)
• God created 3 races: white, black, and yellow,
• distinct races from the beginning of time
• there is necessarily a competition
• inherent qualities of the races, beauty, intelligence, morality, for him the story of civilization was competition and decline, because miscegenation (intermarriage) mixing brought cultural decline
• this was picked up by public figures who said this can aid us in the international struggle, struggle of the nations is a competition for superiority and existence.

• History of Germany in the 19th century (1879)
• social darwinism elevated to a national context
• initially as young man was a german liberal for equality of rights and self determination, but the failure of liberalism in germany convinced him that authoritarianism was the special germal path that they did not need political liberalism to have prosperous industry
• he combines darwinism and nationalism
• supports colonialism and says there is a coming struggle for existence among nations
• says by studying history we find that those who survive were right and those who have failed were wrong, race theory very apparent through his rhetoric.

• The Birth of Tragedy (1872)
• on the surface description of greek tragedy
• insight of tragedy is that good people defined by striving can be crushed in the process
• perfect artistic synthesis
• horrible truth of nature and the universe: that there is no redemption for the good but art helps us live with that
• Plato and Socrates came along and talked about this thing called good insist on distrusting passion, we know good through reason which must keep passion in control--he thinks this is a lie.
• he denies what greeks understood so powerful that in the west we still believe this.
• art is a way to see the truth and live with that truth, whole history has been wrongly influenced by vision of the power of reason overarching good which leads us to truth- which is why he calls Christianity suitable for the masses
• if you change good to God, Christianity teaches the same thing that there is redemption and that the good are regarded and that while there might be suffering there is always a plan and we will see this plan in the afterlife.

• Donysius is the God of wine, drunkennes, excess, rebirth, ecstasy, part god part human who has a baby who is torn apart by the titans and zeus zapped the titans, represents the instinctual plant man, life like life, he is a non-intellectual born from the thigh of Zeus-below the belt, represents the instinctual sexual life, which is extremely important to Nietzsche, creator of the spirit of wine you are liberated from yourself in drunkenness, while socartes uses reason and denies instincts Nietzsche brings them out.
• Apollo is the God of serenity, balance, control, and contemplation. Greek tragedy balance between two forces Dionysian and Appolonian.
• motivation of art literature statues because it takes detachment to write a poem, calm, serenity, or to write a play, greatest artists who must create using the intellect reason serenity are able to convey the truth of Dionysius in their art, the true spirit of music is Dionysian

• Nietzsche

• life itself is will to power
• the plant- will to power growth, nourishment, struggling for sunligh
• fundamentally will to power is the inevitable aspect of life.

• poet from before period degeneration, forerunner to aestheticism
• Dandy- someone concerned with style;insisted that style rather than sincerity is the essential and important, immaculately dressed, fussy manners, appeal of artificiality, to set yourself off from the rest, animating spirit, of decadence
• Les Fleurs du Mal (the flowers of evil)- published a series of poems under this title, called obscene outrage to public decency, some of them condemned by french court of decadence elevation of the artificial over the natural, sexual perversion, black mass, soul is a precarious balance by competing forces of catholicism and satanism, sense that evil is enduring and attractive
• spleen-life is awful-outward explosion, feeling like you are just dragged down, lifeless, rich but important, decrepit but still a young man...

• well known poet and published playwright of decadence, public face of intellectuals interested in decadence in 1980s and 90s.
• brought on trial for homosexuality produced love letters with lord alfred douglas.
• witty, funny, Nietzsche hints in his writing
• Salome-one of his plays

• Boudelaire-flowers of evil poem
• Mallarme-symbolist poet
• outgrowth of darker gothic side of romanticism, reaction against naturalism and realism
• surrealism symbolism often spooky and grotesque

• Huysman's Against Nature.
• focus of novel, depicts tastes and inner life, eccentric, reclusive, aesthete, and anti-hero who loathes 19th century bourgeois society and tries to retreat into an ideal artistic world of his own creation. break with naturalism. decadence. contempt for romantics, tries to invent perfumes, creates a garden of poisonous flowers, puts gemstones on the shell of a tortoise which causes his death.
• returning to paris like a non-believer returning to religion.

• Oscar Wilde's play: one of his plays which gained huge interest, story of daughter of herodias, who marries king herod (cruel bloodthirsty ruler during time of jesus). King has incestuous love for Salome who dances for him and pulls her clothing off at the end, in return she asks for the head of John the Baptiste-ends with sense of killing the man she loves, her virginity is taken and her veins fill with fire, herod calls her a harlot and has her crushed by the guards, intriguing people in this period of decadence, interest in this decapitating castrating woman
• Gustave Moreu- painted Salome

• feelings of progress, exhibition of paris, Eiffel tower symbol of progress, life science making life better, invention of the bicycle, elite mode of transportation, spirit of optimism, olympics, health, vigor, wealth, technology, gay 90's
• Decadance and Degeneration is a reaction against belle-epoque

• a reaction against the Belle Epoque
• disgusted by superficial, commercial happiness for all, dont understand the response in decline and illness and sickness without what they are responding to, sickened by Europe becoming more americanized, happiness and luxury is the backdrop for the reaction

• criticizing values of historical period, disgusted by commercial superficial, not at all deep as soon as something has mass appeal then it is sullied-view of decadents.

• Degeneration
• civilization change, degeneration coming from the medical term
• life over a series of generations, early precursors to freud, mental illness and alienation, decline physically in the human body instead of generating it is degenerating.
• look at crime, prostitution, gambling, said all of these are signs of moral weakness that had begun generations earlier and had been passed on and eventually came to be seen in the brain, leading to the decline of people.
• started as a physical prescription, max applied it to Europe.
• impotence becomes a trope of this- sexually something deeply unnatural has happened to the body.
• Denial of aesthetic of realism-which was the aesthetic coming from science, depicting only what we see and showing no spiritual aspect, truths of nature early part of the century for artists of romaticism
• departure from realism.
• leads to aestheticism
• art for arts sake, not a transparent window onto reality but for its own interest, the thing in itself its own beauty.