List some of the major figures of late nineteenth-century philosophy and literature, and their importance

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

The most provocative thinker of the late nineteenth century was the German philosopher and poet Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche. Nietzsche was deeply critical of his own time, stating, "the European of today is vastly inferior in value to the European of the Renaissance." Calling for a revision of traditional values, he rejected organized religion, and attacked Christianity and other institutionalized religions as contributors to the formation of a "slave morality." He was equally critical of democratic institutions, which he saw as the embodiment of rule by mass mediocrity. His goal for humanity was the emergence of a "superman" (Übermensch), whose singular vision and courage would, in his view, produce a "master" morality.
In contrast to the pessimism of Nietzsche, Henri Bergson presented a more positive point of view. Bergson, the most important French philosopher of his time, offered a picture of the world that paralleled key developments in the arts and sciences and anticipated modern notions of time and space. According to Bergson, two primary powers, intellect and intuition, governed the lives of human beings. While intellect perceives experience in individual and discrete terms, intuition grasps experience as it really is: a perpetual stream of sensations. For Bergson, instinct (or intuition) is humankind's noblest faculty, and duration, or "perpetual becoming," is the very stuff of reality—the essence of life.