CM Civilisation G.B PDF - Science and Education in 19th Century Britain

CM CIVILISATION G.B CM 2: SCIENCE AND EDUCATION →Science through education. Very much part of education system, we cannot have scientist without education... -> Universities in 19th century Britain: - The ancient English Universities (Oxford, Cambridge). - Women took unoficial exams from 1865 but c...

CM CIVILISATION G.B CM 2: SCIENCE AND EDUCATION →Science through education. Very much part of education system, we cannot have scientist without education... -> Universities in 19th century Britain: - The ancient English Universities (Oxford, Cambridge). - Women took unoficial exams from 1865 but could not graduate until after the WW1 from Oxford/ WW1 Cambridge. - Universities Tests Acts 1871: Catholics and Dissenters (non-Anglicans) admitted. Were not admitted before, only Anglicans before. They had other choices: Scotland with 7 Universities... BUT Secular Universities opened: - University College of London: Founded in 1829 as a secular alternative to Oxbridge without power to confer degrees. - University of London: Founded in 1836, basically an examination board to confer degrees to students who are taught elsewhere (external degrees). Provincial Universities: - Victoria University (1880)(a fédération of provincial colleges with degreegranting powers). Owens College, Manchester (1851) University College, Liverpool (1881) Yorkshire College of Science, Leeds (1874) - University of Birmingham (1900), First civic, provincial University with degree-granting power... → Changes in the Curriculum: Liberal education dominated until 1860s. - Classics at Oxford. - Mathematics and Classics at Cambridge. - Stamp of a gentleman. - Natural Science Tripos introduced in 1850. - Non vocational education: teaching of classics... BUT, 2/3 Oxford and half of Cambridge graduates take holy orders and become priests. - Law, medicine and engineering exams introduced from the 1850s. →Reasons for resistance to Science at Oxbridge: - Institutional factors: Classics didn't required research / further expenses on equipment, library or new staff. Independence of the colleges. Ancient statutes. Unquestionable established truths of the classics VS constant uncertainties of research. →Reasons for the introduction of science in University curriculum: - Industrial competition: Paris exhibition of 1867. Prussian victories against Austria and France, 1870. Increasing volume of American imports in products ranging from bycicles to boots... Reduced growth rate (2%) vis-à-vis other countries (4%). →Science in the new provincial Universities: - limited provisions of humanities/literature (only modern). - Focus on scientific education (local specialisation). - Close links with local industries. CM 3: SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES IN VICTORIAN BRITAIN. Where was science practiced ? -> scientific societies.  CM CIVILISATION G.B →SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES: OVERVIEW AND TOPOLGY. - THE ROYAL SOCIETY (most prestigious) Est. 1660, oldest surviving society in the world. First female fellow in 1945, men only before. F.R.S (Fellow of the Royal Society) -> prestige and credibility, impossible to replace at that time. Annual fellowship fee in 1830: £50 (£3400 today). Specialist Societies: Linnaean (botanny, 1788) / the Geological (1807)... Charles Babbage, Decline of science in England (1830): expensive fee -> argue that the Royal Society lost its prestige, less men of sciences, England left behind in scientific reseach (France, Germany). Only those who merits should be allowed. Age of Reform (Great Reform Act of 1832, extended franchise to the midle class): complains resulted with the spirit of the time -> country reformation. The Royal Society remained unchanged, but formed the British Association. The British association for the advancement of Science (1831). →THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION: Most important Scientific society of the 19th century. First meeting in York, 1831. Annual meetings held in a different town each year (basically a week-long conference). An umbrella organisation for every scientific discipline (Generalist and Specialist). →PROVINCIAL SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES: Science less a Metropolitan subject. The Manchester literary and philosophical society (Lit and Phil), 1781, the first one. -> provincial pride: "Though in France, societies for these purposes have been instituted in several of the provinces, in England they have almost been confined to the capital." Bath (1788), Derby (1793), Newcastle (1793). All-embracing in their scientific interest. Natural history societies / Naturalists' field clubs -> outdoorsy, selective /limited (≈ 50 people), women mostly excluded. The Heyday of provincial Scientific societies: 1850-1880 (a growing interest for science in province). →SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES: GOVERNANCE AND ACTIVITIES. - GOVERNANCE: Run like a business: elections every years or more... President, Vice president, treasuser, secretary... Ordinary members, associates, honoraires members... Charles Dickens's satirical novels: The Pickwick Papers (1836). The Mufdog Papers (1838). Democratic organisation ? Elections, different roles... → ACTIVITIES: Michael Faraday (1791-1867), electromagnetism. Four ways to gather information: by conversation, lectures, reading, and observation / experiment = a scientific society ? Reading of papers before the society. Publishing a journal. Conversazione (soirée): talk about scientific matters, reading papers, showing experiments... →SCIENCE AS RATIONAL LEISURE: Leisure is not idleness but a change of activity. Victorian middle classes divided along the lines of: Religious denominations, Income, Politics. Politics and religion forbidden in the scientific societies: rules... Scientific socities providing a common ground for the middle class to soften their differences. Science was not something really hard to understand, common ground, still the possibility to learn easily... CM N°4: AMATEURS AND PROFESSIONALS IN VICTORIAN SCIENCE. →AMATEUR TRADITION IN BRITISH SCIENCE. A gentleman's pursuit.  CM CIVILISATION G.B 1690, John Locke. 1809, Richard L. Edgeworth. 1820, the president of the Royal Society lamented that science was viewed as "a kind of hobby followed by a certain class of people". Science was a conventional topic, even in the beginning of the 19th century, it was a hobby for the gentleman (someone who doesnt need to work, part of polite society). →THE ROYAL SOCIETY AS A GENTLEMEN'S CLUB. About half of the 107 Royal Medal Winners (1826-1914) were valued between £10K and £50K at their death. priviliged admission for peers until 1874. In the 1880s, only half of the fellows were 'scientific'. 1774, Joseph Priestly 'a philosopher must have a purse as well as a brain'. Because science was a pursuit for priviliged. Science as one facettes of cultivated gentlemen's repertoire of knowledge. British science was a amateurs science in the 19th century. →IN DEFENSE OF THE AMATEUR TRADITION. British association meeting, 1876. Darwin, Kelvin, Dalton... Gentlemen amateurs without constraint on their interests. Their work within institutions. → PROFESSIONALISING SCIENCE. Professional: The activity is the main source of income, with recognized training, standards and collective group consciousness. → MOVEMENT FOR THE ENDOWMENT OF RESEARCH. 1860 - 1900: Public convinced of national importance of research for material prosperity. Fears that British science is in decline. Science introduced to Universities and civil service. Movement begin, to pay for Science. Science and research were essentials for the well being of the nation. → A RISING MIDDLE CLASS MEN OF SCIENCE (1850 - 1890). Educated NOT at Oxbridge but at medical schools in London, or in Germany. a few hundreds in 1850 and into thousands by 1875. limited career path (Civil service or Universities). Seeking NOT personnal honours but living wages. Made no promise of inevitable improvement or quick success. → THE COUNTER MOVEMENT, 1880S. Political drawbacks: the liberals under William Gladstone, financial austerity, averse to science. Public's aversion of science: declining popular sympathy for science and the scientist. Accusations of 'scientific arrogance' and priestcraft of science. Popular disillusionment with science (protest against vaccination, vivisection). Opposition from within: science should not be the servant of government. 'Society for opposing the Endowment of Research'. CM N°5: SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY Britain -> first industrialized country in the world. Science and industry: close links. →INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION, 1760-: Britain, the first industrialized and the richest nation in 19th century. Muscle power > steam power.  CM CIVILISATION G.B small workshops / home manufacturing > factories (increased efficiency, divisions of labor...). Slow > fast. Craftmanship > standardized mass production. →THE STEAM ENGINE: Burns fuel, such as coil. Converts steam pressure into power which can be manipulated. Early versions were not efficient (they burned too much coal for too little work). Improvements by James Watt (1765). Steam engine first use in mines, evacuates water... →STEAM-POWERED LOCOMOTIVE: Developped by George Stephenson in the 1820s. First railway line between Liverpool to Manchester opened in 1830. 48 KMPH. From 1840s, railways mania, principal ways of transportation: goods, people... →STEAM CONQUERED THE SEAS: Isambard kingdom Brunel (1806 - 1859). Built the Great Western (boat). Bristol to New York in 14 days. → NATION ON DISPLAY, 1851: THE GREAT EXHIBITION OF THE WORKS OF INDUSTRY OF ALL NATIONS IN LONDON. Organised by Prince Albert (Queen's Victoria's husband). Promoted free trade and international peace. British as the chosen nation to guide and lead the world. →THE DECLINE OF INDUSTRY ? Alleged poor performance of British Industrialists at L'EXPOSITION UNIVERSELLE. Inventor rather than "scientist" had been on the forefront in Britain. Decline of the natural reserves (coal and iron) in Britain. In Germany and US science - trained engineers and managers. →COUNTER ARGUMENT: NO DECLINE... Transatlantic Telegraph cable: several failed attempts from 1858. British men of science (e.g. Lord Kelvin) and American investors finally achieve laying a functionning cable between Ireland and Newfoundland in 1866. Transmitted 8 minutes... →CONCLUSION: Technological developments had significant impact on the lives of Victorians. Scientific and Technological advances were imbued with national pride. Until the second half of the 19th century, science and "scientist" were not closely involved in the forefront of industrial development. in the Second half of the century, although industry began to depend more on scientific expertise... CM N°6: NATURE AND SOCIETY →Idea of evolution: before Charles Darwin's Origins (1859). →Educated British men's beliefs about nature in 1800. God created the Earth in 4004 BC. He created every living species of plants and animals individually and they remained the same ever since. Evolution, living species addapting ≠ living species did not changed since the beginning. The great Chain of Being legitimized the hierarchies in nature and society. Hierarchy in society replicated in  CM CIVILISATION G.B nature. →Natural theology: Explaining nature, relation between nature and religion, nature through religion. William Paley (1743-1805): "Natural theology or, evidences of the existence and attributes of the Deity..." He came up with a lot of analogy: The watchmaker analogy: a walk, found a watch, very detailed, we have to work in harmony to made the watch work, harmonious maker. He then look at nature, human beings, intricate, detailed, there must be an ingenious maker: GOD (created an armonious universe). From this idea -> "the book of nature" and the Bible. Close relationship between science and religion. Studiying nature = religious... →Political climate: fear of revolution in Britain. 1789, Bastille. Louis XVI execution (1793). The British Conservative were happy. Terror (1793 - 1794). Relation with theology: challenged God, armonious world... →Dangerous science, Erasmus Darwin. Erasmus Darwin (1731 - 1802), Charles Darwin's grandfather. Middle-class physician with wideranging scientific interest. Studied at Cambridge University. Firm belief, human's potential for improvement influenced by French Enlightenment. "Zoonomia" (1794 - 1796). "The temple of nature" (1803). He is telling us that all living creatures cames from one ancestors. Pionniers of ideas of change: evolution and nature. →Dangerous science, Lamarck. Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck (1744-1829). Appointed professor of zoology at Museum National d'histoire naturelle in 1793. "Philosophie Zoologique" (1809), first book ever on evolution. Transmutation: inheritance of acquired characteristics to adapt to environment. →Dangerous science, Vestiges of Creation. "Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation" (1844). Anonymously published by Charles Chambers (revealed in 1884). Scottish publisher of "useful knowledge" magazines (Chambers Edinurgh Journal). Explained the universe in Lamarckian fashion (transmutation) and refused natural theology (Constant care of god to create or destroy this or that creature).  CM CIVILISATION G.B CM N°7: DARWIN’S THEORY OF EVOLUTION →IDEA OF EVOLUTION = IDEA OF CHANGE IN NATURE -> even before Darwin, but the first one to come up with a mechanism through which evolution happened. Darwin’s grandfather: we all have one common ancestors… →CHARLES ROBERT DARWIN (1809 – 1882) From a family of eccentrics (Grandfathers: Erasmus Darwin, a physician and philosopher & Josiah Wedgewood, one of the leading anti-slavery movement character). Father Robert Darwin, a prominent doctor. Upper-middle class family. For two generations, they were doctors, physician, and Charles Darwin was sent to University… First studied medicine at Edinburgh, then skip classes more and more, not interested anymore in medicine… Finally studied at Cambridge to become a priest in the Church of England -> Clergymen, priest were among the most influential naturalist of this period. Becoming a priest was a good deal: lot of free time, and incomes. He studied natural theology… Received a proposition from one of his teachers to voyage on board of a ship around the world. The captain needed a companion, because he could not socialize with the crew (social classes…). →ON THE BEAGLE, 1831-6: Charles Darwin -> all the liberty he needed, collected species, visited places… Planned to only take 2 years, lasted 5 years: extended to Australia… Formative period wich really made him a natural scientist… →DARWIN’S AIM: SOLVING THE SPECIES PROBLEM, LINNEAN SYSTEM OF TAXONOMY (CLASSIFICATION). Charles Linnaeus (Karl Von Linné), 1707-1778. He came up with seven hierarchical categories. “Systema Naturae” (1735). Categories: Species, Genus, Family… Variety or Species? Charles Darwin tried to answers… Do species really exists? →THOMAS ROBERT MALTHUS (1766 – 1834). British political economist , demographer and philosopher… hypothesis: population increases geometrically/exponentially. I.E. 1,2,4,8… While, food ressources increase arithmetically I.E. 1,2,3,4,5… →SECLUSION AT THE DOWN HOUSE, KENT. Darwin wanted to be alone, because he realized that his ideas were unacceptable for society. Began to work from home. Wrote many letters…, kept in touch with other people, but not physically. he created his own laboratory, own personal space… left a letter to his wife: manuscript that should be published in case he died. He then receive a letter from a naturalist. Alfred Russell Wallace. He explained his ideas of evolutionary theories. ‘‘I never saw a more striking coincidence. if Wallace had my M.S. sketch written out in 1842 he could not have made a better short abstract!”. Charles Darwin then decided to published his book, in 1859. Earth about 300 million years old Avoids questions over the origin of life or human origins Unlike Paleyite cheerful harmony, brutal struggle for life Sparingly refers to a Creator «Natural selection» brings to question «who is the selector. CM 8: Science, religion, evolution, and Darwin;  CM CIVILISATION G.B →Huxley vs. Wilberforce: The 1860 Debate and the Myth of Conflict →The Oxford Meeting (1860): Took place shortly after Darwin's Origin of Species was published in 1859. Contrary to popular belief, only one paper explicitly mentioned Darwin's theory during the event. The debate occurred after this paper, between Bishop Samuel Wilberforce and biologist Thomas Henry Huxley. → The Popular Narrative: Wilberforce is often caricatured as a dogmatic defender of religion, while Huxley is seen as a rational hero of science. This interpretation frames the event as a moral and intellectual clash between enlightenment and superstition. → Historical Revisionism: Historians have challenged the idea of a clear "conflict" between science and religion. vMany Victorian scientists, including clergymen like Adam Sedgwick, harmonized their religious beliefs with scientific inquiry. Darwin’s theory faced criticism not only from theologians but also from scientists on empirical grounds (e.g., lack of fossil evidence). →The Broader Context: The debate was part of a larger cultural shift, with figures like Huxley promoting professional science and marginalizing theology. The perception of a "warfare" was amplified by Victorian liberalism, nationalism, and conflicts within Christianity itself (e.g., biblical criticism). →Biblical Criticism and Religious Doubt: The controversy over Essays and Reviews (1860), which introduced German biblical criticism to England, caused a greater religious crisis than Darwinism. Anglican orthodoxy was challenged on moral and doctrinal grounds, including debates over miracles and eternal damnation. →Darwin’s Personal Journey: Darwin rejected Christianity due to moral objections (e.g., eternal punishment) and the problem of suffering. His loss of faith reflected broader Victorian concerns about the compatibility of divine goodness with the natural world’s cruelty. →Science vs. Religion: A Manufactured Conflict: The "conflict" narrative was partly a strategy by figures like Huxley to professionalize science and assert its independence from theology. Geology had already challenged literal biblical interpretations before Darwin, showing that tensions between science and religion predated evolutionary theory. →Legacy of the Debate: The Huxley-Wilberforce debate remains symbolic but oversimplified. It reflects less a fundamental clash between science and religion and more a struggle between traditional and progressive ideologies in Victorian society. →Conclusion: The Huxley-Wilberforce debate has been mythologized as the epitome of a science-religion conflict. In reality, Victorian society exhibited a complex interplay of ideas, with religious doubt arising from diverse sources, including ethical concerns, biblical criticism, and scientific discoveries. CM 9: SCIENCE AND THE EMPIRE.  CM CIVILISATION G.B →The British Empire, 1897: 1/5 of the surface of the earth and ¼ of the population of the world. →Legitimising the empire and the subjection of other peoples: The markers of «civilization»: Clothes. Religion (Christianity). Social organisation and property ownership. What is race ? Descriptive in 18C, classifactory in 19C. 18C: Environmental conditions cause physical differences. 18C: From primitive to civilized stage determined by environment/opportunity. 19C: unequal stages of development, «duty of the developed» civilizations to impose development on the underdeveloped. →« Sentimentalist» Assimiliationists or the «Civilizing Mission »: Abolition of the slave trade, 1807. Abolition of slavery, 1833. →Ethology: James Cowles Prichard, FRS (1786-1848), physician and the founder of ethnology. Researches into the Physical History of Man, 1813. In the tradition of Enlightenment. Culture and stage of material development of people as indicators Monogenesis. The Ethnological Society of London, 1843-1871. In collaboration with the Aborigine’s Protection Society. H →Ethnography: The study of the culture, history, customs of a group (civilisation?). Aboriginal Protection Society, 1837. motto ‘ab uno sanguine’ (‘from one blood’). Ethnographical Society of London, 1843. Should indigenous peoples be studied as they were, preserved from change, or helped to ‘advance’ through Christianization, the introduction of Western technology and eventual ‘amalgamation’ with other peoples? British Association for the Advancement of Science first refused (1844) to create a ethnological section and then became a joint section with geography in 1851. → Anthropology and Antrhoplogy Society of London, 1863-71: Robert Knox, The Races of Man, 1850. Polygenist: races are not mere ‘varieties’ but separate species that have not changed and never would. A marginal  CM CIVILISATION G.B figure, the book did not sell many copies. The first modern theory of race. Secularisation of Christian (civilised) vs sinner (savage). Conversion did not promise «civilisation» anymore. AND James Hunt (1833-69), Polygenist. «races» as fixed and separate «types». Rejects Darwin’s evolution and ridicules missionaries and abolitionists. Writings welcomed in the American South during the Civil War (1861-5). j →Racial science, 1870s-1900: Anthropological Institute, 1871. Thomas Huxley, first president. Monogenist. Human evolution understood in cultural terms (with a desire to correlate with biological traits). Scientific racism to justify the empire and hierarchy of peoples in different stages of development. Biological determinism offered simple and universal explanations favouring winners and survivors over losers and victims. Anthropology became a recognized scientific field. CM 10: SCIENCE AND GENDER. →Womanhood in the first half of the 19th century: Adam and Eve: constructed in religion…, argued that women inferiors position in society was God will. «common sense wisdom» «the weaker sex»: smaller body, energy and strength limited… / «children of larger growth». «angel in the house», ideology that emerges in western countries…, formalized The fonction of the sexes… Women in the domestic sphere, men in the public sphere. Women were prevented from: jobs, studies… → Restriction of women: EDUCATION: Superficial and decorative education for girls. FEW JOBS OPPORTUNITIES: Marriage, the best way. Governess, author, teacher… LEGAL: Coverture: Married women’s property became their husbands’… It was the way they were treated by law. Same as children, and when married, tutelle of their Husband. → Individual feminist: Many individual women opposed partriarchal power… a proper time for women to express… Olympe de Gouges, Déclaration des droits de la femme et de la citoyenne (1791). Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792). →An organised movement for equality: The Englishwoman’s Journal, 1858. The first feminist magazine. Their first demands: property rights, vote… With this movement, certains rights began to be obtained.  CM CIVILISATION G.B Higher education. Elizabeth Garrett, 1865, medicine, University of Paris. By achieving higher education, began to enter male dominated fields of employment. Property rights. Married women’s property Acts (1870 and 1883). With these laws, women legally cease to be children, seen as adults now. The vote. Property requirement (£10 house) satisfied. Women finally partly satisfied the requirement. But still couldn’t vote. Amendment to the 1867 Reform Bill refused. This amendment motivated women to organize a movement for the vote -> National society for Women’s suffrage, 1868. The feminist challenge was real. → Laws of nature and laws of society: A new sexual science in the late 19C More precise and empirical. Interdisciplinary (biology, anthropology, sociology etc.), studies differences between sexes..’ Confident of its cultural authority, they were arrogant. In search of the «laws of society», argued that women were naturally inferiors to men. →Two different side: Biology (innatism) vs environment (education), women were weak physically and intellectually because they were born like that VS education and culture shaped individuals… Physical vs cultural. →Sex in the body: Scientific answers to social questions in the female body: Craniology (study of skull), container of the mind. →Skull size... Brain size/weight, majority of the scientists believed there was a corallation…, but impossible to tell the sex of the brain, so no differences… Charles Darwin, The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex, 1871, entered the debate. Innatist, determined by biology… Victorian gentlemen >Victorian educated women> «savages» -> Social ladder. Francis Galton, cousin of Darwin → List of men’s and women’s achievements in science, literature, poetry, painting. Conclusion: average man is more intelligent than average woman... →Sex as a social construct: Sexual discrepancies are environmental and not biological. Some of these ideas existed since the 16th century… CM 11: Pseudosciences in 19C Britain. →History of sciences over-looked these pseudoscience fields, not studied. Yet, very important cultural and social influence of pseudoscience. Science is a body of socially negociated knowledge. Scientific conclusion have to be accepted to be scientific (approval). Some of pseudosciences were not accepted, so were not sciences…(alchemy, astrology,…). →Phrenology, the most famous one. Studies of the mind, psychology… Began in Vienna through the writings of Francis Joseph Gall. He was in the Index Librorum Prohibtorum (catalogue of prohibited books by the Church). Studied the mind through self reflection, to understand the way in which the mind function, very abstract like philosophy. until then, soul = mind = brain, relationship between body and mind, contradictory with phrenology. Phrenologist believed by examining different brain regions, we could tell he they were successful… Also brain dissections were made. But study of the skull shape, it was argued that if some regions of the brain were developed, the skull too, so no need to cut and analyse the brain. Believed that they can tell one abilities… -> biological determinism. →The rise of phrenology in Britain, 1820-50. Phrenology was mocked first… 1819, Essays on Phrenology 1824,System of Phrenology 1828,TheConstitution of Man Considered in Relation to External Objects. Sciences need social platform to operate, so: 1820, The Edinburgh Phrenological Society. 1840s, 29 phrenological societies in Britain, to promote communication, He published the:  CM CIVILISATION G.B 1823-47,Phrenological Journal. Phrenology was still not a proper scientific field. The response of the scientific community went trough a lot of changes… despite their initial aversion, medical men began to study… Medical men in support of phrenology, 1820s. Besides the changes, it was certainly more popular to the general public, it promised the science of being happy, beginning of personal development. →The science of being happy: the Bible does not provide enough instructions, requirements to use one’s own reason, to tell people how to live in these changing times. It offered a popular system of psychology to explain scientifically the great riddle of human nature. It was liberating, it denied the original sins, it argued that human nature was essentially good. Everyone has the potential to improve themselves. Through a reading of their skull. →Optimism and (limited) self improvement: people were inherently unequal and classified into distinct mental types. Mental hierarchy = social hierarchy. Although, there was a limit to each the member of each social class could improve themselves. There were no alteration of the social structure and no shifts in wealth and power through education. →Marginalization of phrenology in medicine, 1850: opposed by: the «old guards» in medical community → Anglican. followers of phrenology in medicine: from lower social classes, working in the lowest ranks of the professions. Younger by 20 years than the «old guards». Dissenter, deist, materialist. became more popular through the century. Despite the scientific opinion, phrenology, was a science for everyone, everyone could practice. Phrenology brought the study of the mind with the body.