Nineteenth Century Thought Read Online Free

nature offered to Darwin ever new
challenges, compelling him to change or modify conclusions arrived at earlier.
    This made the research undertaken by
Darwin extremely fascinating. Closing in upon the category of human life as
part of the existence of life on the earth, Darwin considered humankind to be
not a 'creation' (since that implied the presence of a 'creator') but a species
in a long chain of evolution. As mentioned, Darwin kept his conclusions
tentative and open-ended, since the scientific method of enquiry is averse to
any kind of finality or fixity.
    Compare Darwin to the twentieth
century philosophers on the human beings' status in the world. We shall find
that Darwin is far too modest, tentative and earnest than they are. Unlike
Darwin, the typical twentieth century thinker is arrogant and conceited, not
knowing that most intellectual activity going on around us today is a sponsored
one, supported by those who have wrongfully acquired resources and who stand to
gain from theories of permanence, fate and universalism. One can assess the'
worth of the typical twentieth century thinker by looking at the role
contemporary thought-trends play vis-a-vis existing power structures. These
trends have reduce d the human being to the level of a helpless, servile
creature. They attribute no dynamism and strength to the human being today.
Darwin's view of man was totally different, a view that recognised in man such noble qualities as "sympathy which feels for the most debased, ... benevolence which extends not only to other men
but to the humblest living creature, ... his godlike intellect which has
penetrated into the movements and constitution of the solar system."
    Darwin turned the whole notion of the
Supreme Being or perfection upside down and compelled the
philosophical-scientific discourse of his time to take a new radical
materialist direction. If today, we assert circularity, changelessness and a
certain fixity, we arbitrarily and irrationally move out of the 'chain' of human
study in history. Darwin's basic contribution lay in showing the untenability of belief systems, such as religion,
transcendence and tradition all of which resist change, progress and true
modernity in social vision. He found that knowledge about nature (this was ·the
area of study to which he primarily belonged) is deepened as scholars gather as
well as examine more and more information about happenings in the evolution of
life on the earth.

Materialist Thought in the Social
Domain
    Whereas Darwin went over the larger
naturalist terrain to map the emergence of species in evolution leading to the
descent of man, John Stuart Mill turned his eye to events and occurrences in
the contemporary world. One social group to which he particularly drew
attention was that of women. The question that disturbed him no end related to
the place and role of women in the nineteenth century English society. In his
opinion, if we allowed women to become active participants in social life, we
would gain a great deal in producing amenities as well as create better
culture. A genuine utilitarian, Mill thought that because of unacceptable
prejudices, men had rendered half of the human population unproductive by
confining women to the limited space of home.
    Mill's realization was that most
people allow their thought to be moulded by traditional ideas and do not
subject their notions to objective scrutiny. What are traditional ideas if not
reflection of an attitude of lazy acceptance of the views of the powerful
sections in society? Should this be allowed to remain so or examined for seeing
what it actually is? Mill firmly believed that communities and societies would
profit a lot in social improvement and dignity if women were treated on a par
with men. The obstacle standing in the way of equality and increased
productivity, according to Mill, was the oppressive, unthinking norms governing
people's minds. He wondered why people accepted whatever was on offer. Was