Thursday, October 22, 2009

Commentary 7- Hobsbawm 10-13

The Age of Empire
Hobsbawm – Chapter 10-13
Commentary 7


Chapter 10 was probably my favorite of the chapters in Hobsbawm’s Age of Empire. Chapters 11, 12, and 13 present vital knowledge, key to a rounded understanding of history, but in my own life, Chapter 10 seems very pertinent. The Scientific Method is a systematic process of factually identifying truths. I have spent so much time using this method, but have never been educated on the history of its emergence.


I like how Hobsbawm identified two main effects of the age of enlightenment on society, but I would have preferred a more in depth description. The first outcome was the termination of one school of thought regarding the universe and onto new, factually based theories. Secondly, the idea of evolution materialized, ensuring the end of one era and the start of a new one.


It was especially interesting to picture the process of this scientific transformation in regards to the collective absorption of a new thought process. I imagine it was similar to learning something in class and relearning it to be something opposite, but to a revolutionary degree. How do you envision the process of modernizing and standardizing knowledge? What kind of negative effects did this change have on the common person?

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