by Peter Watson
agitprop, 165–6, 474
AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome), 658, 660, 662–3, 764
alcoholism, 103–4
alienation, 53, 225, 289, 292, 408, 599, 640, 704
alternative consciousness, 502
altruism, 619
amplification, 476–7, 617
anaerobes, 685
‘angry young men’, 463–5
animal behaviour (ethology), 309–10, 606–12
anthropic principle, 742
anthropology: applied to US society, 212–15; and cultural variations, 278–81, 461–2, 674–6; Frazer and, 30, 60; Freeman challenges, 665; and native
Americans, 116–20; and psychoanalysis, 141–2; and study of
adolescence, 278–9; see also Ruth Benedict; Franz Boas; Margaret Mead; Clifford Geertz
antibiotics, 367–8
antidepressants, 501, 597
anti-psychiatry, 502
anti-Semitism: decline of, 760; German, 42–3, 394; growth of, 71; Heidegger and, 309; Hitler and, 243–4; in Hungary, 181; Jung’s, 759; and literary canon, 726–7; in USA, 327, 352, 435; in Vienna, 12, 33, 45, 56, 243; Zola condemns, 327; see also holocaust; Jews; National Socialism; race theory
apartheid, 526
Apollo space program (USA), 566–8
archaeology: in Africa, 725–8; and cultural distribution, 555–65; in Egypt and Middle East, 246–52; see also dendrochronology; Potassium-Argon dating; radiocarbon dating; and individual sites and peoples in Index of Names, People and Places
architecture: and Bauhaus, 34, 223–4; ‘brown world’, 332; and Flatiron Building, 80–2; international style, CIAM, 331–2, 622; Plan Voisin, 332; and Pompidou Centre (Paris), 621–3; postmodern, 679; in Vienna, 26–7, 34–5; ‘white world’, 332; see also individual architects and buildings in Index of Names, People and Places
Arica, 598–9
Armory Show, New York (1912), 126–8
ARPANET, 736–7
arrhenoplasm, 33
artificial life, 746, 748
Aryans and Aryanism, 40, 42–3, 241, 296, 315
Ashcan school (painters), 85–6, 89
astrology, 602–3
astrophysics (and cosmology): and cosmic radiation, 569–73; and Eddington’s relativity experiments, 183–5, 264; and unstable universe, 264–6; see also, ‘Big Bang’; nuclear synthesis
atomic bomb: development of, 392–3, 395–401; dropped on Japan, 401–2, 728–9; in USSR, 507; see also hydrogen bomb; nuclear energy
atomic structure see particle physics
atonality, 56–7, 230, 512
autism, 506
automatic writing, 164
automation, 365
avant-garde (art), 107, 126–9, 161–7, 203–4, 510–12; defined, 53; see also modernism
awareness movement, 600–1
baby boom, 537
background radiation see relict radiation
bakelite (earlier Bakalite), 97–8
ballet, 130–2, 357–9, 510, 512–15
Bantu (people), 557
Beat culture, 454–6, 595, 760
behaviorism, 495–8, 500, 551
Bell Curve, 698–9
beta decay, 393
beta-blockers, 659
‘Big Bang’ theory, 508, 569–71, 740–1, 751, 755
‘Big brother’, 473
bioenergetics, 598
birth control see contraception
black body problem, 22–3
black holes, 572–3, 739–41, 755
blacks see US minorities, racial
Blaue Reiter, Der (movement), 55
‘blight of dullness’, 521, 680
blood transfusion, 147
boosterism, 210
Boxer Rising (China, 1898), 70
branes, 745
Brownian motion, 61, 95
Brücke, Die (movement), 55
bull cults, 251
business administration: education for, 78–80
business-cycle theory, 652
Cambrian Explosion, 686
cancer research, 658–62, 666, 700
canon (literary), 722–6, 732–3
capitalism: and alienation, 436; collapse foretold, 224, 293, 378; communist alternative, 294; and cooperation, 389; as creative haven, 767; and culture, 186–8; Daniel Bell on, 593–4; Orwell writes against, 288; and Protestant ethic, 46–7; static nature, 378; universal evolution towards, 753
carbon-14 dating see radiocarbon dating
catastrophe theory, 746–7
cathode rays, 21
Catholicism: and modernism, 53; resists scientific revolution, 67–9; values, 46–7; see also Christianity
cave paintings (prehistoric), 368–70
cavity magnetron, 366, 392
cellophane, 343
celluloid, 97
Cepheid stars, 182
ceremonies of the whole, 30
CFCs, 586
chaoplexity, 746–7, 764
chaos theory, 746
chemical bond, 266, 268, 343–4
chemistry, 96, 266–7
childhood: understanding of, 77–8, 498–500
chimpanzees: studied, 608–9, 611, 618
Christianity: as ‘absolute religion’, 753–4; Christopher Hill on changes in, 603–4; and discovery of Dead Sea scrolls, 574–5; ‘Five Fundamentals’, 207; and Nazism, 314–15; opposition to evolution theory, 207–8; and other religions, 188; reaction to scientific revolution, 67–9, 575–8; and revisionist theology, 576–9; and secularisation, 604; and social principles, 381–2, 388; and transcendent truth, 472; and Vatican II, 579–80; worldwide spread of, 245; see also religion
chromosomes, 114–15, 373–4; see also genes
church-going, 603–4
cinema see films and cinema
cities: decline and rehabilitation in USA, 520–2, 680; Mumford on, 289
civil disobedience, 549
civil rights movement (USA), 391, 523–4, 528–9, 551, 753
class (social), 284–6, 448–9, 451
climate: human influence on, 586
cloning, 614–16
code-breaking (wartime), 361–4
Cold War, the, 410, 444, 474, 481, 507, 517, 538, 591
colloids, 344
colonialism, 714–15
Colossus (calculating machine), 364–5
communism: collapse of, 753; and Cuban missile crisis, 517; French intellectuals embrace, 412–13; ideology of, 632; repression under, 539–44; US suppression of, 434; Western attitudes to, 292–4, 386–7; world spread of, 517; see also Marxism
computers, 363–5; see also Internet
Confucianism, 69–71, 178–9
Consciousness I, II and III, 583–4, 586
consciousness studies, 701–3, 746, 756
consilience, 692, 768
constructivism, 68, 166
consumerism, 444–6
continental drift, 122–4, 553–4, 570
contraception, 428–9, 526
corporations (business): and planning, 590–2
correspondence (in quantum physics), 259
cosmetic surgery, 147
cosmic rays, 508
cosmic string, 741
cosmological constant, 265
cosmology see astrophysics
counter-culture, 537, 594–8
creation see ‘Big Bang’ theory; universe
crisis theology, 576
critical mass (nuclear fission), 396
critical theory, 226
criticism (literary), 347, 465–6
Cubism, 63, 129, 131
cults and sects, 603–4
Cultural Left, 467
Cultural Revolution (China), 539–40
cultural studies (and culture wars), 716–35, 768
culture: Blooms’ attack on decline of, 720–3; cross-over, 769; Snow-Leavis ‘two-culture’ debate, 467–70; tradition and levels of, 450–3, 466–7, 470, 706; see also anthropology
cuneiform writing
, 249
cyberspace, 738
cytosine, 480
Dada, 161–4
Darwinism: and pessimism, 38; Social, 40–4, 47–8, 60, 113, 122, 136, 241, 244, 246, 318–21, 453; see also evolution
dating methods see dendrochronology; potassium-argon method; radiocarbon dating
DDT (earlier DDD), 582–3
Dead Sea scrolls, 574–5
decolonisation, 460
deconstruction, 627, 631–2
défaillance, 672–3
degeneration, 38, 43–5, 53, 606
democracy, 753–4
demythologising, 576–7
dendrochronology, 252–3, 563, 565
dinosaurs: extinction of, 686–8
direct analysis, 663
dissonance (musical): emancipation of, 56
DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid): and cloning, 614–16; deep geometry of, 748; discovery of structure of, 374, 478–81; and genetic fingerprinting, 682–3; and human inequalities, 697; mitochondrial, 689; and origins of life, 684; see also nucleic acid
domestication: of animals and plants, 752
dominant traits (genetics), 19
double bind, 502
double-helix, 480, 614–15; see also DNA
Drosophila melanogaster (fruit fly), 113–15
drugs: mind-affecting, 501–2
E=mc2, 93, 107, 571
e-mail, 737; see also Internet
earth: age of, 124; photographed from space, 580–1; see also ecology
ecology, 582–6; see also animal behaviour
economics: and society, 646–55; see also acquisitive society; affluence; business-cycle theory; capitalism; consumerism; corporations (business); famines; free market
economics; Great Depression; Great Society; growth; laissez-faire; living standards; monetarism; New Deal; New Growth Theory; planned society; poverty; stagflation; underclass; unemployment; welfare state; and Bretton Woods; Wall Street Crash; and individual economists in Index of Names, People and Places
Ediacara, 686
edification (philosophy), 669–70
education: and abolition of schools, 535–6; criticised in USA, 729–31; in democracies, 77–8; and equality of opportunity, 533–6; and neighborhood effect, 519; popular, 220; see also universities
ego, the, 37
Eight-Fold Way, 509
élan vital see life force
electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), 501
electronic music, 624
electronics, 477
electrons, 21–2, 37, 64, 93, 134, 258–9, 261–3, 267; see also particle physics
elephants: studied, 611–12, 618
elevators (lifts), 81n
emergent properties, 701
empiricism, 76, 91, 235, 632
encyclicals (papal) see Index of Names, People and Places under Popes John XXIII; Pius X and Pius XII
energy: emission of, 22–3
ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Calculator), 364–5
Enigma (code machine), 361–2, 364
Enovid (birth-control pill), 429
entropy, 22
environment see ecology
épuration (French post-war purging), 409, 411
Erhard Seminar Training (EST), 598
ethnic cleansing, 766
ethology see animal behaviour
eugenics, 44, 113, 115, 242, 318; see also
race theory
Eurodollars, 590
evidential research, 70
evolution: as ‘best idea, ever’, 3, 694; Catholic Church resists, 67–8; as concept, 66; and consciousness, 702, 756; effect on US intellectual life, 453; end of, 753; evolutionary synthesis, 371; human place in, 253–5, 371–2; and knowledge forms, 757–8; and Nietzsche’s philosophy, 40; popular acceptance of, 121, 124; and progress, 246; and racial differences, 121–2, 124–5; and recent human history, 752; religious response to, 207–8, 290; and right to exist, 617; and ‘saltation’, 372–3; and Scopes trial (Tennessee), 207; slow pace of, 71, 124–5; and stable strategy (ESS), 619–20; Teilhard de Chardin on, 577–8; teleology of, 769; theoretical work and writings on, 692–8; see also Darwinism
exclusion principle (physics), 259
existentialism, 407–8, 410–12, 414, 421, 630; and religion, 575–6
Explorer (US space vehicle), 484
Expressionism, 56; in cinema, 221–2
Fabianism, 293
family life, 451, 601
family planning, 428–9
famines, 651
fascism: as danger in USA, 435; rise of, 224–6, 234; Socialist hostility to, 287; in Switzerland, 306
Fauvism, 60, 129, 165
feminism, 276–7, 422–3, 430–1, 530–2, 536
Fibonacci sequence, 747–8
films and cinema: beginnings, 86–9; creative innovations in (‘new wave’), 636–9; documentary, 327–8; Expressionist, 221–2; in India, 712; madness in, 490–1; Orson Welles and, 348–9; popularity, 234–5; and propaganda, 328–9, 331; realism in, 327; sound introduced, 326; in USSR, 329–30
fixed action patterns see animal behaviour
flexible accumulation, 680
flight: beginnings, 83–5, 89; and jet propulsion, 268–9; and Soviet aeronautics, 482–3
fossils see palaeontology
fractals, 746
Francophone thought, 753
free market economics, 650–2, 655–6, 753, 766–7
freedom see liberty
Freudianism see psychoanalysis
‘frodos’, 738
fruit fly see Drosophila melanogaster futurism, 164, 166
Gaia theory, 693
genes: and cancer research, 661; discovery of, 17; mathematics of, 748; physical composition, 373–4; and survival, 619–20; see also DNA; human genome project
Genesis, 573, 755
generic engineering, 616
genetic epistemology, 500
genetic fingerprinting, 682–3
genetics: de Vries on, 17–8; and ethics and social behaviour, 617–19, 693; and inheritance mechanism, 113–15; Mendel’s discoveries in, 18–19; Morgan’s theory of, 113–15; and mutation, 374; and race theory, 309–11; in Soviet Union, 318–21, 473–6; see also human genome project
geology: and age of earth, 124; and fossil
distribution, 122; and origins of life, 686; see also continental drift
German intuition, 240
Gestalt, 31–2
glands, ductless, 102–3
Gleitende, das, 29–30
global warming, 586
globalisation, 754
gluons, 667
God: proofs of existence, 30–1
gorillas: studied, 610–11, 618
‘great attractor’ (cosmology), 755
Great Depression (1930s), 340–2, 519, 646
‘Great Refusal’ (Mercuse), 503
Great Society (USA), 375, 376–7, 516, 518, 521–2, 533, 536, 596, 654
Great Terror (USSR), 320–3, 334, 386
Great War (1914–18) see World War I
‘green’ movement, 585
greenhouse effect see global warming
growth (economic), 648–50
guanine, 480
gulag (USSR), 541–4
hallucinogenic substances, 597
heart transplants see transplants (organ)
Hinduism, 762
historicism, 379–81, 557–64, 632
history: and progress, 254–5; ‘wars’, 728–9
Holocaust, 352, 435, 734–5, 764; see also Jews
homme révolté, I’, 409, 628
Homo genus see man: origins and fossil evidence
homosexuality: and AIDS, 657–8, 662; in Genet, 415–16; and liberalisation, 526; and Mann’s Death in Venice, 135–6; prevalence, 529; in Proust, 199–200
hormones, 102
human genome project, 615, 700, 738
hydrogen bomb, 506–8
identity crisis, 506
ideology: end of, 447–9, 753, 7
60; false consciousness of, 632
idioplasm, 33
ignorance: as veil, 548–9
Immaculate Conception, 68
immortality: prospect of, 755
immunosuppressants, 659–60
imperialism, 48, 50; see also decolonisation
Impressionism, 27–8, 59, 64, 127–8
Index of Prohibited Books (Catholic Church), 297
individualism, 27; see also narcissism
infantile sexuality, 13, 34
inflation (in early universe), 741
information technology, 605; see also
Internet
innate releasing mechanisms see animal behaviour
inner-directed people, 433
insanity see mental illness
Insight, 598
Intelligence Quotient (IQ): and Bell Curve, 698–9; and educational
attainment, 533–4; tests, 146–50, 206, 375, 533, 535
intentional fallacy, the, 635
intercesseurs, 61
Interface Message Processor (IMP), 737
intermediate technology, 586
international style (art and architecture), 331–2, 622
Internet, 736–8
interpretation (in art forms), 515
intuition: in science, 471–2
IQ see Intelligence Quotient
Islam, 761–2
jet propulsion, 268–70, 365
justice, 517–19, 548–9, 677–9; see also liberty
K/T boundary, 686, 688
Kaposi’s sarcoma, 657
kerygma, 576–7
‘kitchen-sink’ drama, 463–4
Kitsch, 221
knowledge: forms of, 667–72, 676–7, 757–8, 760; limits to, 755, 764–6
Kristallnacht (1938), 394
laissez-faire (economics), 41
‘Lamb shift’, 508
language: classification of, 690–2; and deconstruction, 631–2; formation and learning of, 497, 695; as instinct, 695; as mental construct, 630–1; and modes of discourse, 626; origins of, 689–91, 695, 696–7; see also Mother Tongue
lentiviruses, 660
leukemia, 658–60
liberalism: and education, 30–2; and equality, 519; and intellectual tradition, 452; and narcissism, 600
liberty (freedom), 517–19, 544–51, 579, 645, 753
libraries (early), 251
life: origins of, 684–6, 748–9
life force (élan vital), 66–7
light: nature of, 94–5, 260
Linear A and B scripts (Crete), 16
