Edinburgh University Press Origins and Foundations in the Modernist Age: Physical Sciences, Social Sciences and Humanities

Reveals the historically distinctive ideas about origins and foundations that developed in the modernist period Surveys many fields from physics, cosmology, and biology to philosophy, literature, and art Identifies cross-cultural patterns from these various areas Argues that modernists probed these ideas more deeply than did their Victorian predecessors Uses a phenomenological method to define subject matter and interpret its historical significance In contrast to recent modernist studies that find evidence of modernism well before and after the period from 1890 to 1930, Stephen Kern concentrates on these key forty years to examine two fundamental ideas: origins and foundations. Analysing this period of exceptional cultural achievement in a wide range of fields including physics, cosmology, geology, biology, anthropology, psychology, psychiatry, philosophy, religion, literature and art, Kern contrasts the achievements of the modernist period, from 1890 to 1930, against the background of the Victorian period. Origins and Foundations in the Modernist Age surveys historically distinctive ideas about chronological origins as well as theoretical, ontological, functional and formal foundations and argues that modernists probed deeper into origins and foundations than the Victorians, especially in the physical and social sciences, and developed distinctive new foundational techniques in literature and art.