Video:
Audio:
Recommended Reading:
- Powerpoint presentation
- Complete text of works discussed in this lecture:
- Friedrich Nietzsche’s Beyond Good and Evil and Thus Spoke Zarathustra
- Sigmund Freud’s The Interpretation of Dreams and Civilization and Its Discontents
- Max Weber’s The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism
- Friedrich Nietzsche’s Beyond Good and Evil and Thus Spoke Zarathustra
- Sigmund Freud’s The Interpretation of Dreams and Civilization and Its Discontents
- Max Weber’s The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism
- The Legacy of Max Weber by Ludwig Lachmann
- “The Pareto Rule and Welfare Economics” by Jeffrey Herbener
Modernism – Quiz
- Explain Sigmund Freud’s theory of the tripartite division of the human mind.
- Explain Friedrich Nietzsche’s concept of the übermensch and why he thought it was necessary.
- Explain Nietzsche’s variety of nihilism.
- Explain Vilfredo’s “80/20 rule” and its significance.
- Explain the basic idea of the “Weber thesis” and its significance.
- The id is the source of the most basic impulses and appetites; the ego is the center of rationality; the super-ego is the moral center.
- The übermensch is superior to other men and creates his own morality and meaning. He is necessary to lead Europe into the 20 century given the failure of Christianity.
- There is no inherent meaning in the universe. Any meaning must be created by men.
- 20% of the population is responsible for 80% of society’s accomplishments. Society should do more to empower this 20%; democracy is counterproductive.
- Capitalism developed in northern Europe because of the Protestant view of work as a divine calling and capital accumulation as an act of Christian stewardship.