1. Relativity and the End of Empires

2. Positivism – 19th century – Auguste Comte
By the 19th century, advances in science, tech., and industry had scientists
and philosophers believing they were close to figuring out the universe
Positivism: Three phases: 1) primitive, 2) organized religion, and 3) positive phase
To Comte and others, Westerners were on the verge of figuring out all of the
universal laws that governed how the world worked, and how human society worked
Furthermore, they thought they could figure out and complete the perfect society
This ideal was held optimistically until the early 20th century, when scientific discoveries
and events such as WWI shattered the idea that the universe or society could be perfected

3. Relativity in Science
By the 1900s, Western society had drastically advanced science and modernization
Based on what they knew at the time, they believed there were certain basic
laws of the universe that they could understand, control, and manipulate
Starting in 1905, Albert Einstein released a series of papers that complete rejected all
notions of known scientific law and restructured our understanding of the universe
Einstein argued time and space were not constant—they
were relative—always changing, and dependent on the situation
Discoveries in science (mostly Einstein and Max Planck) would
no longer provide simple, constant solutions to the operations of the world

5. Discoveries Knowledge-shattering theories/discoveries
Time, space, and gravity are relative and interactive
Space and time are related and limited the speed of light
Time and space could bend and tear (black/white holes and worm holes)
Energy and matter are interchangeable (Max Planck – Quantum Physics)
(E = mc^2) – matter could convert to energy
Atoms were not the smallest particles (discovery of electrons)
Light behaved differently (sometimes waves, sometimes particles)
Subatomic particles and light demonstrated all possibilities at once
(only existed in one spot when measured)
In short, scientists discovered we have no control over the randomness
of the universe, and could not ‘master’ or completely understand it