15.1 Key Terms & Names

Albert Einstein (1879-1955)

1. German physicist whose theory of special relativity undermined Newtonian physics 2. Challenged traditional conceptions of time, space, and motion 3. Contributed to the view that humans live in a universe with uncertainties 4. Added to the feeling of uncertainty in the postwar world

surrealism

"above or beyond reality"; a 20th-century avant-garde movement in art and literature that sought to release the creative potential of the unconscious mind, for example by the irrational juxtaposition of images.

Theory of Relativity

Albert Einstein's ideas about the interrelationships between time and space and between energy and matter

Charles Lindbergh

United States aviator who in 1927 made the first solo nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean

existentialism

A philosophy based on the idea that people give meaning to their lives through their choices and actions

Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900)

German philosopher who said that "God is dead," because people killed him with their false values. He said that Christianity and all religion is a "slave morality." He also said that the only hope for mankind was to accept the meaninglessness of human life, and to then use that meaninglessness as a source of personal integrity and liberation. From this meaninglessness, people called Supermen would exert their mind on other and rise to power. He appealed to people who liked totalitarianism.

jazz

a style of music characterized by the use of improvisation

Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)

founder of psychoanalysis, a controversial theory about the workings of the unconscious mind