Who Were the Two Key Figures in Philosophy at the Turn of the Century - Research Paper Example

Who Were the Two Key Figures in Philosophy at the Turn of the Century? Philosophy is a subject like any other subjects that people have taken their time to study and get to understand more. Those studying philosophy are known as philosophers and among the withstanding ones, their contributions during the 19th century are studied below (Guisepi). Alison Wylie is a philosopher of science that dealt with evidential reasoning including various ideals of objectivity while attending to vagaries of a specific inference from limited data. Wylie has made a great contribution on how archeologist will be able to establish knowledge claims regarding social and cultural pasts having a radical and incomplete information base. Through his philosophies, there are ways in which ideals and objectivities can be defended while recognizing explicit partisan interest should not be biased, instead play an important role in enquiries. Roberto Torretti made a great contribution to philosophy of Immanuel Kent relating to Geometry and Elparaiso del cantor, although much of the work did by Torreti dealt with mathematics and physics. The most recent work he did focused majorly on relativity theory and geometry of the 19th century; in addition, he wrote a comprehensive dictionary on logic as well as the philosophy of science Jesus Mosterin (Boersema) David Charles Stove is a professor who made scathing attacks on issues like Popperian falsification, postmodernism, Marxism and feminism. Stove is a known defender of inductive skepticism and he was able to write various articles for magazines that were non-philosophical. One of his arguments regarding inductive skepticism is that it was fallacious and harmful and it causes modern nervousness, he also criticized biology of evolution stating that it was not as radical as it should be, especially the distortion view of human beings that is proposed by Ultra-Darwinists. Moreover, he also argued about altruism stating the altruism has given some contributions to the growth of cynicism and selfishness among human beings. Charles Darwin is a philosopher who established the theory of evolution in 1859; moreover, like many other philosophers, he also had a tremendous impact concerning the philosophy of America. Though he was not known much outside academics, two thinkers came up and wrote along his lines of philosophy. The two thinkers are John Fiske (1842-1901) and Chauncey Wright (1830-1875), they both insisted on the importance of understanding morality and consciousness in conjunction to their evolutionary development; therefore, their way of thinking became more liked in the twentieth century. In addition, other 19th century philosophers include the three philosophers who are known as classical pragmatists, of the three Peirce Charles came up with the term “pragmatism”, logic of relations and the studying of signs in 1870s. Despite this, Peirce who is also known to be a mathematician as well as a scientist wrote about the importance of philosophy as well as the value theory. James William is another philosopher who did more work than Peirce did; moreover, he popularized pragmatism as a theory that stood for truth and resolved disputes in his work. John Dewey on the other hand reached more audience as compared to Peirce and James because he was born many generations after them. Due to his work, he was a known reformer of education who participated in public forums as well as influencing democratic and education works (Boersema). Technical and scientific development of the late 19th Century The 19th century is majorly known as the age of machine – tool, it is during this time that electricity; petroleum and steel were discovered to be useful in speeding up the production of consumer goods. Additionally, this time led to a second industrial revolution that took place in the years 1865 to 1900 during which steam ships, railways and other faster means of communication were invented. To be precise the 19th century lasted from 1801 to 1900; hence, it is commonly known as the 1800s (“Late Nineteenth Century…”). During the 19th century, many scientific and technological developments emerged because of the transformations that were made. Moreover, during this century wood was replaced by coal as a source of fuel, advanced technology was invented in both iron and textile manufacturing industries and more improved metal tools were created as advancements from wood not leaving behind the powered steam engine that was to speed up transportation in the world. This scientific and technological advancement were first invented in England and later transferred to America where advancements were seen in the skills and knowledge that were applied by mechanics and artisans not leaving behind those made in the industries. For example, the invention of canals in England tremendously increased industrialization sectors that later grew to greater heights (Williams) Despite of the British legislation banning the export of new technologies in their countries, the new United States never prohibited the technologies, but instead expanded on the technologies that made it to be more developed than other countries in the world. Therefore, because of this, the United States has been identified as a nation that has advanced more on its communication and transport sectors because of technologies invented during the 19th century. Among the development made during the 19th century in the transportation and communication are the heavy engines that were seen in America’s roads and rivers that replaced the slow use of mules and horses as means of transport. On the other hand, technologically, communication became advanced and developed as telephone and telegraphs were invented that replaced the old means of communication and even became better than the railways that were built (“Late Nineteenth Century…”). When looking on how people lived, most of them lived in rural areas where they were mainly farmers, but during the nineteenth because of industrialization, most of these people living in rural areas moved to cities in search of better jobs. Another development that was noticed during the 19th century was the way the British government ruled whereby it deserted the commitment towards unlimited free enterprise whereby parliament approved laws that protected children, miners and workers from exploitations In conclusion, the 19th century was the turning point of many nations among them Japan, Britain, France as well as the United States of America where significant scientific and technological development took place. To be specific, the developments that were invented in the 19th century include; industrialization which is the key and outstanding developments in the world, communication and transport, political rules and ways of government as well as migration from rural to urban cities in search of employment that resulted in the 19th century. Work Cited “Late Nineteenth Century Changes in Science and Thought”. n.d. Web. 13 January 2013. Williams, James. Technology and Engineering in the American Experience: A Survey of Literature. n.d. Web. 12 January 2013. < http://www.nps.gov/history/history/resedu/bb_williams.htm > Boersema, David. American Philosophy. Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 2005. Web. 12 January 2013. < http://www.iep.utm.edu/american/> Guisepi, Robert. “PHILOSOPHY: An analysis of the grounds of and concepts expressing fundamental beliefs.” Philosophers. n.d. Web. 12 January 2013. < http://history-world.org/philosophy.htm > Read More