Modernity

Modernity typically refers to a post-traditional, post-medieval historical period, one

marked by the move from feudalism (or agrarianism) toward capitalism, industrialization,
secularization, rationalization, the nation-state and its constituent institutions and forms
of surveillance (Barker 2005, 444).

Charles Pierre Baudelaire is credited with coining the term "modernity" (modernité) to
designate the fleeting, ephemeral experience of life in an urban metropolis, and the
responsibility art has to capture that experience.

Conceptually, modernity relates to the modern era and to modernism, but forms a distinct
concept.

Whereas the Enlightenment (ca. 1650–1800) invokes a specific movement in Western

philosophy, modernity tends to refer only to the social relations associated with the rise of
capitalism. Modernity may also refer to tendencies in intellectual culture, particularly the
movements intertwined with secularisation and post-industrial life, such as Marxism,
existentialism, and the formal establishment of social science. In context, modernity has
been associated with cultural and intellectual movements of 1436–1789 and extending to
the 1970s or later (Toulmin 1992, 3–5).

Contents
Related terms[edit]
The term "modern" (Latin modernus from modo, "just now") dates from the 5th century,
originally distinguishing the Christian era from the Pagan era, yet the word entered
general usage only in the 17th-century quarrel of the Ancients and the Moderns—
debating: "Is Modern culture superior to Classical (Græco–Roman) culture?"—a literary
and artistic quarrel within the Académie française in the early 1690s.

In these[which?] usages, "modernity" denoted the renunciation of the recent past, favouring a
new beginning, and a re-interpretation of historical origin. The distinction between
"modernity" and "modern" did not arise until the 19th century (Delanty 2007).

Phases of modernity[edit]
The history of Modernity is construed in many ways. It is mainly aligned with the age of
Enlightenment in the 18th Century (also known as Age of Reason).[citation needed]
Others[weasel words] have noted that its spread went so far back as the 16th century during the
period of Western imperialism. In relation to Media theory it is commonly understood as
having emerged in and around the 15th century where the Printing press was first
invented.[citation needed]

According to one of Marshall Berman's books (Berman 1982, 16–17), modernity is

periodized into three conventional phases (dubbed "Early," "Classical," and "Late,"
respectively, by Peter Osborne (1992, 25):

 Early modernity: 1500–1789 (or 1453–1789 in traditional historiography)

 Classical modernity: 1789–1900 (corresponding to the long 19th century (1789–
1914) in Hobsbawm's scheme)
 Late modernity: 1900–1989

In the second phase Berman draws upon the growth of modern technologies such as the
newspaper, telegraph and other forms of mass media. There was a great shift into
modernization in the name of industrial capitalism. Finally in the third phase, modernist
arts and individual creativity marked the beginning of a new modernist age as it combats
oppressive politics, economics as well as other social forces including mass media
(Laughey 2007, 30).[citation needed]

Some authors, such as Lyotard and Baudrillard, believe that modernity ended in the mid-
or late-20th century and thus have defined a period subsequent to modernity, namely
Postmodernity (1930s/1950s/1990s–present). Other theorists, however, regard the period
from the late 20th century to the present as merely another phase of modernity; Bauman
calls this phase "Liquid" modernity, Giddens labels it "High" modernity (see High
modernism).

Defining modernity[edit]
Politically[edit]

Politically, modernity's earliest phase starts with Niccolò Machiavelli's works which
openly rejected the medieval and Aristotelian style of analyzing politics by comparison
with ideas about how things should be, in favour of realistic analysis of how things really
are. He also proposed that an aim of politics is to control one's own chance or fortune,
and that relying upon providence actually leads to evil. Machiavelli argued, for example,
that violent divisions within political communities are unavoidable, but can also be a
source of strength which law-makers and leaders should account for and even encourage
in some ways (Strauss 1987).

Machiavelli's recommendations were sometimes influential upon kings and princes, but
eventually came to be seen as favoring free republics over monarchies (Rahe 2006, 1).
Machiavelli in turn influenced Francis Bacon (Kennington 2004, chapt. 4[page needed]),
Marchamont Needham (Rahe 2006, chapt. 1[page needed]), James Harrington Rahe 2006,
chapt. 1[page needed]), John Milton (Bock, Skinner, and Viroli 1990, chapt. 11[page needed]), David
Hume (Rahe 2006, chapt. 4[page needed]), and many others (Strauss 1958).
Important modern political doctrines which stem from the new Machiavellian realism
include Mandeville's influential proposal that "Private Vices by the dextrous Management
of a skilful Politician may be turned into Publick Benefits” (the last sentence of his Fable
of the Bees), and also the doctrine of a constitutional "separation of powers" in
government, first clearly proposed by Montesquieu. Both these principles are enshrined
within the constitutions of most modern democracies. It has been observed that while
Machiavelli's realism saw a value to war and political violence, his lasting influence has
been "tamed" so that useful conflict was deliberately converted as much as possible to
formalized political struggles and the economic "conflict" encouraged between free,
private enterprises (Rahe 2006, chapt. 5[page needed]; Mansfield 1989).

Starting with Thomas Hobbes, attempts were made to use the methods of the new modern
physical sciences, as proposed by Bacon and Descartes, applied to humanity and politics
(Berns 1987). Notable attempts to improve upon the methodological approach of Hobbes
include those of Locke (Goldwin 1987), Spinoza (Rosen 1987), Giambattista Vico (1984
xli), and Rousseau (1997 part 1). David Hume made what he considered to be the first
proper attempt at trying to apply Bacon's scientific method to political subjects (Hume
1896 [1739], intro.), rejecting some aspects of the approach of Hobbes.

Modernist republicanism openly influenced the foundation of republics during the Dutch
Revolt (1568–1609) (Bock, Skinner, and Viroli 1990, chpt. 10,12[page needed]), English Civil
War (1642–1651) (Rahe 2006, chapt. 1[page needed]), American Revolution (1775–1783)
(Rahe 2006, chapt. 6–11[page needed], and the French Revolution (1789–1799) (Orwin and
Tarcov 1997, chapt. 8[page needed]).

A second phase of modernist political thinking begins with Rousseau, who questioned the
natural rationality and sociality of humanity and proposed that human nature was much
more malleable than had been previously thought. By this logic, what makes a good
political system or a good man is completely dependent upon the chance path a whole
people has taken over history. This thought influenced the political (and aesthetic)
thinking of Immanuel Kant, Edmund Burke and others and led to a critical review of
modernist politics. On the conservative side, Burke argued that this understanding
encouraged caution and avoidance of radical change. However more ambitious
movements also developed from this insight into human culture, initially Romanticism
and Historicism, and eventually both the Communism of Karl Marx, and the modern
forms of nationalism inspired by the French Revolution, including, in one extreme, the
German Nazi movement (Orwin and Tarcov 1997, chapt. 4[page needed]).

On the other hand, the notion modernity has been contested also due to its Euro-centric
underpinnings. This is further aggravated by the re-emergence of non-Western powers.
Yet, the contestations about modernity are also linked with our notions of democracy,
social discipline, and development (Regilme 2012)

Sociologically[edit]
Cover of the original German edition of Max Weber's The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit
of Capitalism

In sociology, a discipline that arose in direct response to the social problems of

"modernity" (Harriss 2000, 325), the term most generally refers to the social conditions,
processes, and discourses consequent to the Age of Enlightenment. In the most basic
terms, Anthony Giddens describes modernity as

...a shorthand term for modern society, or industrial civilization. Portrayed in more detail,
it is associated with (1) a certain set of attitudes towards the world, the idea of the world
as open to transformation, by human intervention; (2) a complex of economic institutions,
especially industrial production and a market economy; (3) a certain range of political
institutions, including the nation-state and mass democracy. Largely as a result of these
characteristics, modernity is vastly more dynamic than any previous type of social order.
It is a society—more technically, a complex of institutions—which, unlike any preceding
culture, lives in the future, rather than the past (Giddens 1998, 94).

Culturally and philosophically[edit]

The era of modernity is characterised socially by industrialisation and the division of

labour and philosophically by "the loss of certainty, and the realization that certainty can
never be established, once and for all" (Delanty 2007). With new social and philosophical
conditions arose fundamental new challenges. Various 19th century intellectuals, from
Auguste Comte to Karl Marx to Sigmund Freud, attempted to offer scientific and/or
political ideologies in the wake of secularisation. Modernity may be described as the "age
of ideology."[citation needed]

For Marx, what was the basis of modernity was the emergence of capitalism and the
revolutionary bourgeoisie, which led to an unprecedented expansion of productive forces
and to the creation of the world market. Durkheim tackled modernity from a different
angle by following the ideas of Saint-Simon about the industrial system. Although the
starting point is the same as Marx, feudal society, Durkheim emphasizes far less the
rising of the bourgeoisie as a new revolutionary class and very seldom refers to
capitalism as the new mode of production implemented by it. The fundamental impulse to
modernity is rather industrialism accompanied by the new scientific forces. In the work
of Max Weber, modernity is closely associated with the processess of rationalization and
disenchantment of the world. (Larraín 2000, 13)

Critical theorists such as Theodor Adorno and Zygmunt Bauman propose that
modernity[need quotation to verify] or industrialization represents a departure from the central
tenets of the Enlightenment and towards nefarious processes of alienation, such as
commodity fetishism and the Holocaust (Adorno 1973; Bauman 1989). Contemporary
sociological critical theory presents the concept of "rationalization" in even more
negative terms than those Weber originally defined. Processes of rationalization—as
progress for the sake of progress—may in many cases have what critical theory says is a
negative and dehumanising effect on modern society.[citation needed]

Consequent to debate about economic globalization, the comparative analysis of

civilisations, and the post-colonial perspective of "alternative modernities," Shmuel
Eisenstadt introduced the concept of "multiple modernities" (2003; see also Delanty
2007). Modernity as a "plural condition" is the central concept of this sociologic
approach and perspective, which broadens the definition of "modernity" from exclusively
denoting Western European culture to a culturally relativistic definition, thereby:
"Modernity is not Westernization, and its key processes and dynamics can be found in all
societies" (Delanty 2007).

Secularization[edit]

Modernity, or the Modern Age, is typically defined as a post-traditional,[citation needed] and

post-medieval historical period (Heidegger 1938, 66–67). Central to modernity is
emancipation from religion, specifically the hegemony of Christianity, and the
consequent secularization. Modern thought repudiates the Judeo-Christian belief in the
Biblical God as a mere relic of superstitious ages (Fackenheim 1957, 272-73; Husserl
1931,[page needed]).[note 1] It all started with Descartes revolutionary methodic doubt, which
transformed the concept of truth in the concept of certainty, whose only guarantor is no
longer God or the Church, but Man's subjective judgement (Alexander 1931, 484-5;
Heidegger 1938).[note 2]

Theologians have tried to cope with their worry that Western modernism has brought the
world to no longer being well-disposed towards Christianity (Kilby 2004, 262; Davies
2004, 133; Cassirer 1944, 13–14).[note 3] Modernity aimed towards "a progressive force
promising to liberate humankind from ignorance and irrationality" (Rosenau 1992, 5).

Scientifically[edit]

Main article: Modern science

In the 16th and 17th centuries, Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo and others developed a new
approach to physics and astronomy which changed the way people came to think about
many things. Copernicus presented new models of the solar system which no longer
placed humanity's home, on Earth, in the centre. Kepler used mathematics to discuss
physics and described regularities of nature this way. Galileo actually made his famous
proof of uniform acceleration in freefall using mathematics (Kennington 2004, chapt.
1,4[page needed]).

Francis Bacon, especially in his Novum Organum, argued for a new experimental based
approach to science, which sought no knowledge of formal or final causes, and was
therefore materialist, like the ancient philosophy of Democritus and Epicurus. But he also
added a theme that science should seek to control nature for the sake of humanity, and not
seek to understand it just for the sake of understanding. In both these things he was
influenced by Machiavelli's earlier criticism of medieval Scholasticism, and his proposal
that leaders should aim to control their own fortune (Kennington 2004, chapt.
1,4[page needed]).

Influenced both by Galileo's new physics and Bacon, René Descartes argued soon after
that mathematics and geometry provided a model of how scientific knowledge could be
built up in small steps. He also argued openly that human beings themselves could be
understood as complex machines (Kennington 2004, chapt. 6[page needed]).

Isaac Newton, influenced by Descartes, but also, like Bacon, a proponent of

experimentation, provided the archetypal example of how both Cartesian mathematics,
geometry and theoretical deduction on the one hand, and Baconian experimental
observation and induction on the other hand, together could lead to great advances in the
practical understanding of regularities in nature (d'Alembert 2009 [1751]; Henry 2004).

Artistically[edit]

Main article: Modern art

After modernist political thinking had already become widely known in France,
Rousseau's re-examination of human nature led to a new criticism of the value of
reasoning itself which in turn led to a new understanding of less rationalistic human
activities especially the arts. The initial influence was upon the movements known as
German Idealism and Romanticism in the 18th and 19th century. Modern art therefore
belongs only to the later phases of modernity (Orwinand Tarcov 1997, chapt. 2,4[page needed])

For this reason art history keeps the term "modernity" distinct from the terms Modern
Age and Modernism – as a discrete "term applied to the cultural condition in which the
seemingly absolute necessity of innovation becomes a primary fact of life, work, and
thought". And modernity in art "is more than merely the state of being modern, or the
opposition between old and new" (Smith 2009).

In the essay "The Painter of Modern Life" (1864), Charles Baudelaire gives a literary
definition: "By modernity I mean the transitory, the fugitive, the contingent" (Baudelaire
1964, 13).

Advancing technological innovation, affecting artistic technique and the means of

manufacture, changed rapidly the possibilities of art and its status in a rapidly changing
society. Photography challenged the place of the painter and painting. Architecture was
transformed by the availability of steel for structures.