Modernity
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Modernity is a term used to describe the condition of being "modern". Since the term "modern" is used to describe a wide range of periods, modernity must be understood in its context.
Modern can mean all of post-medieval European history, in the context of dividing history into three large epochs: Antiquity or ancient history, the Middle Ages, and Modern. In the context of contemporary culture, politics and other subjects, it is also applied specifically to the period beginning somewhere between 1870 and 1910, through the present, and even more specifically to the early 20th century, though the late modern times would be marked by the late 18th century (Industrial, American, and French Revolutions).
"Modernity" is a different term from modern times; while the latter refers to political events (Acts of Parliament) or religious (Reformation, Thirty Years' War), modernity rather refers to the development of concepts like capitalism and individualism. Still, both terms might often be used synonymously.
It is also different from Modernism, a movement in Late Modern culture.
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[edit] Modern as post-medieval
One common use of the term is to describe the condition of Western History since the mid-1400s, or roughly the European development of moveable type and the printing press.
- Rise of capitalism
- Emergence of socialist countries
- Institution of representative democracy
- Individualism
- Increasing role of science and technology
- Spread of social movements
- Urbanization
- Mass literacy and proliferation of mass media
- Industrialization
In this context the "modern" society is said to develop over many periods, and to be influenced by important events which represent breaks in the continuity:
Particular ways of periodizing modernity include:
- The Age of Discovery
- The Renaissance
- The Reformation and Counter Reformation
- The Age of Reason
- The Enlightenment
- the Romantic era
- the Victorian era (See also The Industrial Revolution)
- the Modern era
- the Postmodern era (See also Postmodernity and Digitality)
Important events in the development of modernity in this context include
- The Arrival of the Printing Press
- The English Civil War
- The American Revolution
- The French Revolution
- The Revolutions of 1848
- The Russian Revolution
- The First World War and the Second World War
It is usually suggested that some or most of these events led to the more complete realization of "modern" society in Europe.
[edit] Change to Modernity in different Fields
[edit] Political thought
Controversially, Leo Strauss believed that modernism generally started with the first modern political writer, Niccolò Machiavelli.[citation needed] It is indeed interesting that in his works, all the elements of modernism are present:
- The positive attitude towards change, and attempts to make progress in technology, economics and military power, despite the obvious dangers involved in revolutions of all types.
- The positive attitude towards experimentation with new forms of democracy or republicanism combined with a disdain for medieval institutions.
- A positive attitude towards larger states, despite an appreciation of the superiority of small communities in most respects.
What is particularly interesting is the clarity with which an argument is made for this revolutionary approach, versus the approach of classical political thinking with which Machiavelli was clearly in great agreement. The revolution is needed, according to Machiavelli, because of unpleasant necessity which had reached a head in his time. All communities must take into account not only what is best for them in isolation, but also the threat of outsiders, concerning whom the most dangerous are often large imperialist states and/or innovators rather traditionalist. (For example gun powder was becoming widely used in the European military in his time.) In other words, according to Strauss' understanding, the first type of modernism was political, and concerned with the constant threat of an arms race. The famous modern concerns with economics and natural science, developed from this in following generations, especially under René Descartes, Thomas Hobbes and Francis Bacon.
Less controversially, many would agree that the first signs of modernity were certainly in Machiavelli's lifetime, which was also the time of Martin Luther, Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, the Borgia popes, Amerigo Vespucci, Leonardo da Vinci, and Henrys VII and VIII of England. Machiavelli's political writings are surprisingly open in their criticism of the traditional division of power which existed in Europe, especially Italy, between the Roman Catholic Church and secular government, which was still centered around the Holy Roman Emperor. His writings are startling in their encouragement to all parties to try to take control - including the Church, the Empire or even democratic reformists such as those found in his home Florence and in Switzerland. (Nevertheless most commentators argue that he shows a marked preference for Republics.)
Far from creating peace, the transition from feudal institutions to modern institutions was marked by a series of Revolutions and military conflicts, beginning with the Eighty Years' War, which resulted in Dutch independence, confirmed in the Peace of Westphalia. The Peace of Westphalia (1648) established the modern international system of independent nation-states, ending feudalism in international relations. After a first revolution which temporarily ended the monarchy in Britain and Ireland, creating a "Commonwealth" the English "Glorious" Revolution (1688) marked the final days of feudalism in Great Britain, creating a modern constitutional monarchy. The French Revolution of 1789 overthrew the Ancien Régime in France, and as a result of the Napoleonic Wars, served to introduce political modernity in much of Western Europe.
The English, American and French Revolutions limited the powers of monarchs and all traditional rulers. Eventually, Democracy, Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity became the new standards of government and of the rules of society which in turn aim themselves more at material wealth, and avoidance of death, and less at, for example, salvation or honor than most other societies in history.
Men such as the Emperor Napoleon introduced new codes of law in Europe based on merit and achievement, rather than on a class system rooted in Feudalism. The modern political system of Liberalism (derived from the word "Liberty" which means "Freedom") empowered members of the disenfranchised Third Estate. The power of elected bodies supplanted traditional rule by royal decree. A new attachment to one's nation, culture and language produced the powerful forces of Nationalism. This in turn ultimately contributed to new ideologies such as the ideology of Fascism, Socialism and Communism.
Taken to an extreme, the desire to demolish all vestiges of the past and create a classless society, resulted in the abuses of Communism following the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, which executed the Tsar and his family, created the Soviet Union, transformed serfdom, and forcibly modernized Mother Russia. In Germany, once the Kaiser had abdicated in 1918, chaos ensued, paving the way for the rise of Adolf Hitler and Nazism.
The new republic of the United States of America granted the vote to white, male citizens, and placed reins on government based on the new Constitution and created a system of checks and balances between the three different branches of government, the legislature, judiciary, and executive headed by a President who was elected via a national election.
In Indian politics, Mughal (1526-1857) and then the British (1857-1947) invasion and skillful organization gradually brought unification for the first time to a subcontinent of separate states and kingdoms into a strongly united federalist system, and culminating in the world's largest democracy (1947-Present). The European Union is now beginning the equivalent process that the Indian Union has completed over the last 500 years, of a continent becoming a federalist union, with the difference being the willingness of the European states to unite, versus the union being imposed on the Indian states by invaders.
[edit] Science and technology
One of the most important aspects of modernity is the encouragement of advance or progress in useful sciences and arts. Politically, this demanded an end to caution in allowing radical ideas to be made public, which radically changed religion and education in European society. See Enlightenment and Humanism.
Revolutions in science and technology have been no less influential than political revolutions in changing the shape of the modern world. The Scientific revolution, beginning with the discoveries of Kepler and Galileo, and culminating with Newton's Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica (1687), changed the way in which educated people looked at the natural world.
From the time of Newton, or perhaps even Descartes, many branches of modern science (perhaps the most extreme example being economics) have been increasingly accused of losing perspective due to their over-stretched efforts to find explanations of nature which are easily analysed in terms of easily measured and easily mathematicised terms.
[edit] Inventions
What is now called technology is the most obvious success of modernity. Mechanical and scientific invention has changed human health and all aspects of human society: economic, religious, social, and theoretical.
For example, modern machines in Britain sped up the manufacture of commodities such as cloth and iron. The horse and ox were no longer needed as beasts of burden. The newly invented engine powered the car, train, ship, and eventually the plane, revolutionizing the way people travelled. Newly discovered energy sources such as petroleum and nuclear power could power the new machines. Raw goods could be transported in huge quantities over vast distances; products could be manufactured quickly and then marketed all over the world, a situation that Britain, and later the US, Europe and Japan all used to their advantage.
Progress continued as science saw many new scientific discoveries. The telephone, radio, X-rays, microscopes, electricity all contributed to rapid changes in life-styles and societies. Discoveries of antibiotics such as penicillin brought new ways of combating diseases. Surgery and various medications made further progress in medical care, hospitals, and nursing. New theories such as evolution and psychoanalysis changed humanity's "old fashioned" views of itself.
[edit] Industry
An Industrial Revolution initiated by mechanical automation of the manufacture of cotton cloth and the use of steam engines, commenced in the 18th century in Great Britain, followed in the 19th century by a later series of developments, which saw modern systems of communication and transportation introduced in the form of steamships, railroads and the telegraph. In the late 19th century, a Second Industrial Revolution, prompted by developments in the chemical, petroleum, steel and electrical industries, furthered transformed the modern world.
[edit] Warfare
Warfare was changed with the advent of new varieties of rifle, cannon, gun, machine gun, armor, tank, plane, jet, and missile. Weapons such as the atomic bomb and the hydrogen bomb, known along with chemical weapons and biological weapons as weapons of mass destruction, actually made the devastation of the entire planet possible in minutes. All these are among the markings of the Modern World.
[edit] Culture
New attitudes towards religion, with the church diminished, and a desire for personal freedoms, induced desires for sexual freedoms, which were ultimately accepted by large sectors of the Western World. Theories of "free love" and uninhibited sex were touted by radicals in the 1960s.
Equality of the sexes in politics and economics, women's liberation movement, gay rights for homosexuals and the freedom afforded by contraception allowed for greater personal choices in these intimate areas of personal life.
In Indian culture, caste divisions continued, but lost its affiliation with occupations, as competitive exams became universal.
As a conclusion, homosexual relationships were accepted while the women's rights were trying to gain power.
[edit] The Arts
The Modern Age, when used in reference to the arts, is the period from around the beginning of the 20th century, up to the present day. While some art may be described as Postmodern art, in reality this is just a continuation of the characteristics of modern art. Modern art is typified by self-awareness, and by the manipulation of form or medium as an integral part of the work itself. Whereas pre-modern (Western) art merely sought to represent a form of reality, modern art tends to encourage the audience to question its perceptions, and thereby the fundamental nature, of art itself. Key movements in modern art include cubist painting, typified by Pablo Picasso, modernist literature such as that written by James Joyce, Virginia Woolf and Gertrude Stein, and the 'new poetry' headed by Ezra Pound and T. S. Eliot.
Modern music saw the beginning of a fusion movement of different styles and cultures. John Coltrane for example fused jazz with Carnatic music to develop his album India. Elvis Presley popularized rock and roll, fusing country-western and blues.
[edit] Universality
The partisan use of the term "worldwide" gives tremendous emotional appeal, and is used in various countries not only by persons from professional historians to self-taught curmudgeons but by political groups which want to impose their view of reality upon their countrymen and even the whole world. The easiest way to do this is to establish a benchmark year and leave the particulars to specialists.
Britain: The Glorious Revolution of 1688 established a king selected by parliament, ending the troubles in that country in the seventeenth century. This was primarily done by the faction called the Whigs, who used the term "modern" for generations thereafter to gain credit. Later generations and political parties did not consider this a sufficient change to merit the term.
France: Although the French still glory in the magnificence of King Louis XIV, the end of his reign in 1715 is considered by them as a handy spot from which to tout the next phase of French glory, the Enlightenment, which they call « l'Age des lumières ». In other words, what happened in Britain does not concern them. After the French Revolution of 1789, they declared that the modern age had been surpassed by the contemporary age.
Russia: It took some time for the European socialists to conceive that the next great revolution would start someplace other than in France. But the Russians have always compared themselves to the French. After the October revolution, the Communist party of the Soviet Union declared that the "modern age" began with Peter the Great and the "contemporary age" began with this Bolshevik revolution.
Japan: The Japanese call the dynasties previous to the Tokugawa dynasty as medieval, and the Meiji Restoration of 1866-1869 is considered equivalent to the French Revolution of 1789, but haven't assimilated a form of the word modern for Tokugawa.
As for the Third World, the obvious benchmarks are colonization by European imperial powers during the "New Imperialism" and the subsequent decolonization in the twentieth century. But "modern" and "contemporary" are not used for this purpose.
The United States of America: A seemingly natural dividing point as far as Spain and the new world are concerned is the voyage of Columbus in 1492. But the need for such an undertaking was underscored by the taking of Constantinople by the Ottoman Empire of the Turks in 1453, so historians once took this as their benchmark.
[edit] Defining characteristics of modernity
There have been numerous ways of understanding what modernity is, particularly in the field of sociology. A wide variety of terms are used to describe the society, social life, driving force, symptomatic mentality, or some other defining aspects of modernity. They include: bureaucracy, disenchantment of the world, rationalization, secularization, alienation, commodification, decontextualization, individualism, subjectivism, linear progression, objectivism, universalism, reductionism, chaos, mass society, industrial society, homogenization, unification, hybridization, diversification, democratization, centralization, hierarchical organization, mechanization, totalitarianism, and so on.
Modernity may be considered "marked and defined by an obsession with 'evidence'", visuality, and visibility (Leppert 2004, p.19).
Modernity is often characterized by comparing modern societies to premodern or postmodern ones, and the understanding of those non-modern social statuses is, again, far from a settled issue. To an extent, it is reasonable to doubt the very possibility of a descriptive concept that can adequately capture diverse realities of societies of various historical contexts, especially non-European ones, let alone a three-stage model of social evolution from premodernity to postmodernity.
However, in terms of social structure, many of the defining events and characteristics listed above stem from a transition from relatively isolated local communities to a more integrated large-scale society. Understood this way, modernization might be a general, abstract process which can be found in many different parts of histories, rather than a unique event in Europe.
In general, large-scale integration involves:
- Increased movement of goods, capital, people, and information among formerly separate areas, and increased influence that reaches beyond a local area.
- Increased formalization of those mobile elements, development of 'circuits' on which those elements and influences travel, and standardization of many aspects of the society in general that is conducive to the mobility.
- Increased specialization of different segments of society, such as the division of labor, and interdependency among areas.
Seemingly contradictory characteristics ascribed to modernity are often different aspects of this process. For example, unique local culture is invaded and lost by the increased mobility of cultural elements, such as recipes, folktales, and hit songs, resulting in a cultural homogenization across localities, but the repertoire of available recipes and songs increases within an area because of the increased interlocal movement, resulting in a diversification within each locality. (This is manifest especially in large metropolises where there are many mobile elements). Centralized bureaucracy and hierarchical organization of governments and firms grows in scale and power in an unprecedented manner, leading some to lament the stifling, cold, rationalist or totalitarian nature of modern society. Yet individuals, often as replaceable components, may be able to move in those social subsystems, creating a sense of liberty, dynamic competition and individualism for others. This is especially the case when a modern society is compared with premodern societies, in which the family and social class one is born into shapes one's lifecourse to a greater extent.
These social changes are somewhat common to many different levels of social integration, and not limited to what happened to the West European societies in a specific time period. For example, these changes might happen when formerly separate virtual communities merge. Similarly, when two human beings develop a close relationship, communication, convention, and increased division of roles tend to emerge. Another example can be found in ongoing globalization - the increased international flows changing the landscape for many. In other words, while modernity has been characterized in many seemingly contradictory ways, many of those characterizations can be reduced to a relatively simple set of concepts of social change.
At the same time, however, such an understanding of modernity is certainly not satisfactory to many, because it fails to explain the global influence of West European and American societies since the Renaissance. Mere large-scale integration of local communities, seen in the Macedon of Alexander the Great or the Mongolia of the Khans, would not necessarily result in the same magnitude of influence as the West European modernization. What has made Western Europe so special?
There have been two major answers to this question. First, an internal factor is that only in Europe, through the Renaissance humanists and early modern philosophers and scientists, rational thinking came to replace many intellectual activities that had been under heavy influence of convention, superstition, and religion. This line of answer is most frequently associated with Max Weber, a sociologist who is known to have pursued the answer to the above question.
Second, an external factor is that colonization, starting as early as the Age of Discovery, created exploitative relations between European countries and their colonies. This view has notably been explored by the world systems theory of Immanuel Wallerstein.
It is also notable that such commonly-observed features of many modern societies as the nuclear family, slavery, gender roles, and nation states do not necessarily fit well with the idea of rational social organization in which components such as people are treated equally. While many of these features have been dissolving, histories seem to suggest those features may not be mere exceptions to the essential characteristics of modernization, but necessary parts of it.
[edit] The paradox of modernity
Modernization brought a series of seemingly indisputable benefits to people. Lower infant mortality rate, decreased death from starvation, eradication of some of the fatal diseases, more equal treatment of people with different backgrounds and incomes, and so on. To some, this is an indication of the potential of modernity, perhaps yet to be fully realized. In general, rational, scientific approach to problems and the pursuit of economic wealth seems still to many a reasonable way of understanding good social development.
At the same time, there are a number of dark sides of modernity pointed out by sociologists and others.
Technological development occurred not only in the medical and agricultural fields, but also in the military. The atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II, and the following nuclear arms race in the post-war era, are considered by some as symbols of the danger of technologies that humans may or may not be able to handle wisely.
Stalin's Great Purges and the Holocaust (or Shoah) are considered by some as indications that rational thinking and rational organization of a society might involve exclusion, or extermination, of non-standard elements. It is pointed out by some that homosexuals, criminals, and the mentally ill are sometimes among the excluded in the modern society.
Environmental problems comprise another category in the dark side of modernity. Pollution is perhaps the least controversial of these, but one may include decreasing biodiversity and climate change as results of development. The development of biotechnology and genetic engineering are creating what some consider sources of unknown risks.
Besides these obvious incidents, many critics point out psychological and moral hazards of modern life - alienation, feeling of rootlessness, loss of strong bonds and common values, hedonism, and so on. This is often accompanied by a re-evaluation of pre-modern communities, though such criticism may slip into a nostalgia for an idealised past.
[edit] Modernity and the contemporary society
There is an ongoing debate about the relationship between modernity and present societies. The debate has two dimensions. First, there is an empirical question of whether some of the present societies can be understood as a developmental continuation of modernity (see late modernity), a variation of modernity (see hypermodernity), or as a distinctive type (see postmodernity). Second, there is a judgement of whether modernization has been, and is, desirable for a society. Seemingly new phenomena such as globalization, the end of the Cold War, ethnic conflicts, and the proliferation of information technologies are taken by some as reasons to adopt a new vision to navigate social development. However modernity came with a structure of self-determination which is greatly seen in contemporary societies
[edit] See also
[edit] Source
- Leppert, Richard (2005). "The Social Discipline of Listening" in Aural Cultures, edited by Jim Drobnick, 19-35. Toronto: YYZ Books, 2004.
- Leppert, Richard (2005). "The Social Discipline of Listening" in Aural Cultures, edited by Jim Drobnick, 19-35. Toronto: YYZ Books, 2004.
[edit] Further Reading
- Latour, Bruno. "We Have Never Been Modern", Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1993.
- Berman, Marshall. "All that is solid melts into air. The experience of modernity." London: Verso, 1993.
| Modernism | |
|---|---|
| 20th century - Modernity - Existentialism | |
| Modernism (music): 20th century classical music - Atonality - Serialism - Jazz | |
| Modernist literature - Modernist poetry | |
| Modern art - Symbolism (arts) - Impressionism - Expressionism - Cubism - Surrealism - Dadaism - Futurism (art) - Fauvism - Pop Art - Abstract expressionism - Minimalism - Lyrical Abstraction - Color Field | |
| Modern dance - Expressionist dance | |
| Modern architecture - Bauhaus - Brutalism - De Stijl - Functionalism - Futurism - Heliopolis style - International Style - Organicism - Visionary architecture | |
| ...Preceded by Romanticism | Followed by Postmodernism... |
| Edit this box | |
