Articles with word modern

современный, новый, модерн, человек нового времени

прилагательное ↓

существительное

- часто человек нового времени; современный человек; человек передовых идей, взглядов и т. п.
- (the moderns) современные писатели, художники и т. п.
- полигр. прямой шрифт нового стиля

Словосочетания

the follies of the modern world — безрассудство современного мира  
a feature of modern jazz idiom — особенность современного джазового стиля  
a book on modern English usage — книга о современном словоупотреблении в английском языке  
the high priest of modern jazz — корифей современного джаза  
a close-up of modern society — изучение современного общества  
modern dance — современный танец  
modern furniture — современная мебель  
modern language — современный язык  
modern life — современная жизнь  
the square of modern law — правила современной юриспруденции  
modern art — современное искусство  
in the modern way — по-новому  

Примеры с переводом

Примеры, ожидающие перевода

Возможные однокоренные слова

modernism  — модернизм, новейшие течения, неологизм
modernist  — модернист
modernity  — современность, современный характер
modernize  — модернизировать, осовременить
modernly  — современно, в современном духе

Princeton’s WordNetRate this definition:2.8 / 11 votes

1. modernnoun

   a contemporary person

2. modern, modern font, Bodoni, Bodoni fontadjective

   a typeface (based on an 18th century design by Gianbattista Bodoni) distinguished by regular shape and hairline serifs and heavy downstrokes

3. modernadjective

   belonging to the modern era; since the Middle Ages

   «modern art»; «modern furniture»; «modern history»; «totem poles are modern rather than prehistoric»

4. mod, modern, modernisticadjective

   relating to a recently developed fashion or style

   «their offices are in a modern skyscraper»; «tables in modernistic designs»;

5. modernadjective

   characteristic of present-day art and music and literature and architecture

6. advanced, forward-looking, innovative, modernadjective

   ahead of the times

   «the advanced teaching methods»; «had advanced views on the subject»; «a forward-looking corporation»; «is British industry innovative enough?»

7. Modern, Newadjective

   used of a living language; being the current stage in its development

   «Modern English»; «New Hebrew is Israeli Hebrew»

WiktionaryRate this definition:1.0 / 3 votes

1. modernnoun

   Someone who lives in modern times.

2. modernadjective

   Pertaining to the current time and style.

3. Etymology: From moderne, from modernus; from modo, originally ablative of modus; hence, by measure, «just now». See also mode.

Samuel Johnson’s DictionaryRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. MODERNnoun

   Etymology: moderne, Fr. from modernus, low Latin, supposed a casual corruption of hodiernus. Vel potius ab adverbio modò, modernus, ut a die diurnus. Ains.

   1. Late; recent; not ancient; not antique.

   Some of the ancient, and likewise divers of the modern writers, that have laboured in natural magick, have noted a sympathy between the sun and certain herbs.
   Francis Bacon.

   The glorious parallels then downward bring
   To modern wonders, and to Britain’s king.
   Matthew Prior.

   2. In William Shakespeare, vulgar; mean; common.

   Trifles, such as we present modern friends withal.
   William Shakespeare.

   The justice
   With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
   Full of wise saws and modern instances.
   William Shakespeare.

   We have our philosophical persons to make modern and familiar things supernatural and causeless.
   William Shakespeare.

Webster DictionaryRate this definition:1.0 / 2 votes

1. Modernadjective

   of or pertaining to the present time, or time not long past; late; not ancient or remote in past time; of recent period; as, modern days, ages, or time; modern authors; modern fashions; modern taste; modern practice

2. Modernadjective

   new and common; trite; commonplace

3. Modernnoun

   a person of modern times; — opposed to ancient

4. Etymology: [F. moderne, L. modernus; akin to modo just now, orig. abl. of modus measure; hence, by measure, just now. See Mode.]

FreebaseRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. Modern

   Modern is the sixth studio album by punk rock band Buzzcocks. It was released in 1999. It was arranged and produced by Tony Barber.

Chambers 20th Century DictionaryRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. Modern

   mod′ėrn, adj. limited to the present or recent time: not ancient: (Shak.) commonplace.—n. one who lives in modern times: (pl.) the nations of the present day, distinguished from the Greeks and Romans—the ancients.—n. Modernisā′tion.—v.t. Mod′ernise, to adapt to the present time.—ns. Mod′erniser; Mod′ernism, modern practice or character: something of modern origin; Mod′ernist, an admirer of modern ideas or habits.—adv. Mod′ernly.—ns. Mod′ernness, Mod′ernity, state or quality of being modern. [Fr.,—L. modernus—modo; just now, orig. abl. of modus.]

Editors ContributionRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. modern

   The current time.

   Modern house decor is personal to the people that live there.

   Submitted by MaryC on March 16, 2020  

British National Corpus

1. Spoken Corpus Frequency

   Rank popularity for the word ‘MODERN’ in Spoken Corpus Frequency: #739

2. Written Corpus Frequency

   Rank popularity for the word ‘MODERN’ in Written Corpus Frequency: #1382

3. Adjectives Frequency

   Rank popularity for the word ‘MODERN’ in Adjectives Frequency: #85

How to pronounce MODERN?

How to say MODERN in sign language?

Numerology

1. Chaldean Numerology

   The numerical value of MODERN in Chaldean Numerology is: 9

2. Pythagorean Numerology

   The numerical value of MODERN in Pythagorean Numerology is: 6

Examples of MODERN in a Sentence

1. Maria McNamara:

   Even though they are in the early stages of feather evolution, they have already adapted their skin to this more modern structure.

2. Ellen Pawlikowski:

   We are going to be facing adversaries that are as modern as we are if not more so. This provides us the opportunity to leverage the entire world market of technology development through our collaborative activity with our allies.

3. Fiona Hibberts:

   The emphasis on sanitation, good hygiene, fresh air exercise, good food… no matter how much we advance, those fundamental foundational principles of Florence are still very much the basis of modern nursing, it’s the same old message. Wash your hands.

4. Jerome Siegel:

   People like to complain that modern life is ruining sleep, but they’re just saying: Kids today! it’s a perennial complaint but you need data to know if it’s true.

5. Richard Alley:

   Clearly, the sea level rise from melting ice 12,000 years ago also affected people, but those people were much more widely spread out, and they didn’t have parking garages and integrated modern water systems serving millions of people, these results say that human decisions about our energy systems are truly important in deciding how much sea level rise we face from melting of Greenland’s ice.

Popularity rank by frequency of use

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Translations for MODERN

From our Multilingual Translation Dictionary

• معاصر, حديث, عصريArabic
• суча́сныBelarusian
• моде́ренBulgarian
• আধুনিকBengali
• modernCatalan, Valencian
• moderníCzech
• moderneDanish
• modernGerman
• μοντέρνοςGreek
• modernaEsperanto
• modernoSpanish
• مدرنPersian
• moderni, uudenaikainen, nykyaikainenFinnish
• moderneFrench
• nua-aimseartha, nua-aoiseachIrish
• nodha, ùr-nodhaScottish Gaelic
• modernoGalician
• מוֹדֶרְנִיHebrew
• आधुनिकHindi
• modernHungarian
• ժամանակակիցArmenian
• modernIndonesian
• modernaIdo
• modernoItalian
• 近代, 現代, モダンJapanese
• ទំនើប, សម័យថ្មីKhmer
• 현대Korean
• modernLatin
• мо́деренMacedonian
• nieuwerwets, modern, eigentijds, hedendaagsDutch
• moderneNorwegian
• nowoczesny, współczesnyPolish
• modernoPortuguese
• современныйRussian
• moderan, модеранSerbo-Croatian
• modernýSlovak
• moderenSlovene
• nutida, modernSwedish
• நவீனTamil
• ఆధునికంTelugu
• çağdaş, modernTurkish
• сучаснийUkrainian
• nulädikVolapük
• 现代的Chinese

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a modern-day (person or thing)

A person or thing that is equivalent to someone or something from the past. The play, for all its surrealist elements, is at its core a modern-day Greek tragedy. The media personality claims to be a modern-day Paul Revere, warning people not of the British, but of the actions and agendas of political extremists in our own population. The film tells the story of a notorious gangster who becomes a kind of modern-day Robin Hood, targeting banks and billionaires in order to give their money to the poor.

a modern-day Paul Revere

Someone who embarks on a long and arduous journey or mission in order to deliver an especially important message. (Paul Revere was a Patriot in the American Revolution famous for his «midnight ride» to warn other patriots as to the movement of British troops.) The media personality claims to be a modern-day Paul Revere, warning people not of the British, but of the actions and agendas of political extremists within our own population. Look, you don’t need to be a modern-day Paul Revere—let people evaluate the candidates on their own and make up their own minds. Larry thinks he’s a modern-day Paul Revere, constantly warning all of us about climate change and global warming, but who wants to hear about that stuff non-stop? He just ends up being a downer.

a modern-day Robin Hood

A reference to the folkloric character of Robin Hood, who, according to legend, was a remarkable archer and was said to rob from the rich in order to give to the poor.

1. Someone who makes a point of redistributing wealth to those in lower financial positions, whether by legal or illegal means. The CEO of the non-profit tech company is styling herself as a modern-day Robin Hood, reinvesting the revenue earned through its hugely successful financial apps directly into local programs for disadvantaged communities around the country. The film tells the story of a notorious gangster who becomes a kind of modern-day Robin Hood, targeting banks and billionaires in order to give their money to the poor. Who wouldn’t vote for a modern-day Robin Hood? Give money to the people who really need it, rather than turning millionaires into billionaires!

2. Someone who is particularly skilled in archery. Our archery camp is always trying to encourage kids to become the next modern-day Robin Hoods. The modern-day Robin Hood managed to hit the apple off the volunteer’s head with an arrow, then split that arrow down the center with a second one. Did you just hit the bulls-eye? Wow, you’re a modern-day Robin Hood all right!

as modern as next week

As current or modern as possible. What resources could her team possibly be lacking? Our new office is as modern as next week! Every college campus is constantly under construction so that they can stay as modern as next week. Too bad what is considered «modern» changes so rapidly.

be as modern as next week

To be as current or modern as possible. What resources could she possibly be lacking? Our new office is as modern as next week! Every college campus is constantly under construction so that they can show off that they’re as modern as next week. Too bad what is considered «modern» changes so rapidly.

modern up

To make something more modern in appearance, style, function, or character. A noun or pronoun can be used between «modern» and «up.» The director said the new film aims to modern up the long-running franchise. I’d love to hire an interior decorator to modern our house up a bit.

Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2022 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.

See also:

• a modern-day (person or thing)
• equate
• equate (someone or something) with (someone or something)
• equate with
• far from
• far from (something)
• far from something/doing something
• family seat
• make change
• make change (for something)

«Modern life» redirects here. For the French film, see Modern Life (film). For the British film production company, see Modern Life?

Modernity, a topic in the humanities and social sciences, is both a historical period (the modern era) and the ensemble of particular socio-cultural norms, attitudes and practices that arose in the wake of the Renaissance—in the «Age of Reason» of 17th-century thought and the 18th-century «Enlightenment». Some^{[citation needed]} commentators consider the era of modernity to have ended by 1930, with World War II in 1945, or the 1980s or 1990s; the following era is called postmodernity. The term «contemporary history» is also used to refer to the post-1945 timeframe, without assigning it to either the modern or postmodern era. (Thus «modern» may be used as a name of a particular era in the past, as opposed to meaning «the current era».)

Depending on the field, «modernity» may refer to different time periods or qualities. In historiography, the 16th to 18th centuries are usually described as early modern, while the long 19th century corresponds to «modern history» proper. While it includes a wide range of interrelated historical processes and cultural phenomena (from fashion to modern warfare), it can also refer to the subjective or existential experience of the conditions they produce, and their ongoing impact on human culture, institutions, and politics.^[1]

As an analytical concept and normative idea, modernity is closely linked to the ethos of philosophical and aesthetic modernism; political and intellectual currents that intersect with the Enlightenment; and subsequent developments such as existentialism, modern art, the formal establishment of social science, and contemporaneous antithetical developments such as Marxism. It also encompasses the social relations associated with the rise of capitalism, and shifts in attitudes associated with secularisation, liberalization, modernization and post-industrial life.^[1]

By the late 19th and 20th centuries, modernist art, politics, science and culture has come to dominate not only Western Europe and North America, but almost every populated area on the globe, including movements thought of as opposed to the West and globalization. The modern era is closely associated with the development of individualism,^[2] capitalism,^[3] urbanization^[2] and a belief in the possibilities of technological and political progress.^[4][5] Wars and other perceived problems of this era, many of which come from the effects of rapid change, and the connected loss of strength of traditional religious and ethical norms, have led to many reactions against modern development.^[6][7] Optimism and belief in constant progress has been most recently criticized by postmodernism while the dominance of Western Europe and Anglo-America over other continents has been criticized by postcolonial theory.

In the context of art history, «modernity» (modernité) has a more limited sense, «modern art» covering the period of c. 1860–1970. Use of the term in this sense is attributed to Charles Baudelaire, who in his 1864 essay «The Painter of Modern Life», designated the «fleeting, ephemeral experience of life in an urban metropolis», and the responsibility art has to capture that experience. In this sense, the term refers to «a particular relationship to time, one characterized by intense historical discontinuity or rupture, openness to the novelty of the future, and a heightened sensitivity to what is unique about the present».^[8]

Etymology[edit]

The Late Latin adjective modernus, a derivation from the adverb modo («presently, just now»), is attested from the 5th century CE, at first in the context of distinguishing the Christian era of the Later Roman Empire from the Pagan era of the Greco-Roman world. In the 6th century CE, Roman historian and statesman Cassiodorus appears to have been the first writer to use modernus («modern») regularly to refer to his own age.^[9]

The terms antiquus and modernus were used in a chronological sense in the Carolingian era. For example, a magister modernus referred to a contemporary scholar, as opposed to old authorities such as Benedict of Nursia. In its early medieval usage, the term modernus referred to authorities regarded in medieval Europe as younger than the Greco-Roman scholars of Classical antiquity and/or the Church Fathers of the Christian era, but not necessarily to the present day, and could include authors several centuries old, from about the time of Bede, i.e. referring to the time after the foundation of the Order of Saint Benedict and/or the fall of the Western Roman Empire.^[10]

The Latin adjective was adopted in Middle French, as moderne, by the 15th century, and hence, in the early Tudor period, into Early Modern English. The early modern word meant «now existing», or «pertaining to the present times», not necessarily with a positive connotation. English author and playwright William Shakespeare used the term modern in the sense of «every-day, ordinary, commonplace».

The word entered wide usage in the context of the late 17th-century quarrel of the Ancients and the Moderns within the Académie Française, debating the question of «Is Modern culture superior to Classical (Græco–Roman) culture?» In the context of this debate, the «ancients» (anciens) and «moderns» (modernes) were proponents of opposing views, the former believing that contemporary writers could do no better than imitate the genius of Classical antiquity, while the latter, first with Charles Perrault (1687), proposed that more than a mere «Renaissance» of ancient achievements, the «Age of Reason» had gone beyond what had been possible in the Classical period of the Greco-Roman civilization. The term modernity, first coined in the 1620s, in this context assumed the implication of a historical epoch following the Renaissance, in which the achievements of antiquity were surpassed.^[11]

Phases[edit]

Modernity has been associated with cultural and intellectual movements of 1436–1789 and extending to the 1970s or later.^[12]

According to Marshall Berman,^[13] modernity is periodized into three conventional phases dubbed «Early,» «Classical,» and «Late» by Peter Osborne:^[14]

• Early modernity: 1500–1789 (or 1453–1789 in traditional historiography)
  • People were beginning to experience a more modern life (Laughey, 31).
• Classical modernity: 1789–1900 (corresponding to the long 19th century (1789–1914) in Hobsbawm’s scheme)
  • Consisted of the rise and growing use of daily newspapers, telegraphs, telephones and other forms of mass media, which influenced the growth of communicating on a broader scale (Laughey, 31).
• Late modernity: 1900–1989
  • Consisted of the globalization of modern life (Laughey, 31).

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.^{[15][citation needed]}

Some authors, such as Lyotard and Baudrillard,^{[citation needed]} 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; Zygmunt Bauman^[16] calls this phase «liquid» modernity, Giddens labels it «high» modernity (see High modernism).^[17]

Definition[edit]

Political[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 lawmakers and leaders should account for and even encourage in some ways.^[18]

Machiavelli’s recommendations were sometimes influential upon kings and princes, but eventually came to be seen as favoring free republics over monarchies.^[19] Machiavelli in turn influenced Francis Bacon,^[20] Marchamont Needham,^[21] James Harrington,^[21] John Milton,^[22] David Hume.,^[23] and many others.^[24]

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.^[25][26]

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.^[27] Notable attempts to improve upon the methodological approach of Hobbes include those of John Locke,^[28] Spinoza,^[29] Giambattista Vico, ^[30] and Rousseau.^[31] David Hume made what he considered to be the first proper attempt at trying to apply Bacon’s scientific method to political subjects,^[32] rejecting some aspects of the approach of Hobbes.

Modernist republicanism openly influenced the foundation of republics during the Dutch Revolt (1568–1609),^[33] English Civil War (1642–1651),^[21] American Revolution (1775–1783),^[34] the French Revolution (1789–1799), and the Haitian revolution (1791–1804).^[35]

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.^[36]

On the other hand, the notion of 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 Western notions of democracy, social discipline, and development.^[37]

Sociological[edit]

In sociology, a discipline that arose in direct response to the social problems of «modernity»,^[38] the term most generally refers to the social conditions, processes, and discourses consequent to the Age of Enlightenment. In the most basic terms, British sociologist 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.^[39]

Other writers have criticized such definitions as just being a listing of factors. They argue that modernity, contingently understood as marked by an ontological formation in dominance, needs to be defined much more fundamentally in terms of different ways of being.

The modern is thus defined by the way in which prior valences of social life … are reconstituted through a constructivist reframing of social practices in relation to basic categories of existence common to all humans: time, space, embodiment, performance and knowledge. The word ‘reconstituted’ here explicitly does not mean replaced.^[40]

This means that modernity overlays earlier formations of traditional and customary life without necessarily replacing them. In a 2006 review essay, historian Michael Saler extended and substantiated this premise, noting that scholarship had revealed historical perspectives on «modernity» that encompassed both enchantment and disenchantment. Late Victorians, for instance, «discussed science in terms of magical influences and vital correspondences, and when vitalism began to be superseded by more mechanistic explanations in the 1830s, magic still remained part of the discourse—now called ‘natural magic,’ to be sure, but no less ‘marvelous’ for being the result of determinate and predictable natural processes.» Mass culture, despite its «superficialities, irrationalities, prejudices, and problems,» became «a vital source of contingent and rational enchantments as well.» Occultism could contribute to the conclusions reached by «modern» psychologists and advanced a «satisfaction» found in this mass culture. In addition, Saler observed that «different accounts of modernity may stress diverse combinations or accentuate some factors more than others…Modernity is defined less by binaries arranged in an implicit hierarchy, or by the dialectical transformation of one term into its opposite, than by unresolved contradictions and oppositions, or antinomies: modernity is Janus-faced.»^[41]

In 2020, Jason Crawford critiqued this recent historiography on enchantment and «modernity.» The historical evidence of «enchantments» for these studies, particularly in mass and print cultures, «might offer some solace to the citizens of a disenchanted world, but they don’t really change the condition of that world.» These «enchantments» offered a «troubled kind of unreality» increasingly separate from «modernity.»^[42] Per Osterrgard and James Fitchett advanced a thesis that mass culture, while generating sources for «enchantment,» more commonly produced «simulations» of «enchantments» and «disenchantments» for consumers.^[43]

Cultural and philosophical[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».^[11] 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.»^[44]

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 processes of rationalization and disenchantment of the world.^[45]

Critical theorists such as Theodor Adorno and Zygmunt Bauman propose that modernity 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.^{[46][page needed][47]} 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.^{[46][page needed][48]}

Enlightenment, understood in the widest sense as the advance of thought, has always aimed at liberating human beings from fear and installing them as masters. Yet the wholly enlightened earth radiates under the sign of disaster triumphant.^[49]

What prompts so many commentators to speak of the ‘end of history’, of post-modernity, ‘second modernity’ and ‘surmodernity’, or otherwise to articulate the intuition of a radical change in the arrangement of human cohabitation and in social conditions under which life-politics is nowadays conducted, is the fact that the long effort to accelerate the speed of movement has presently reached its ‘natural limit’. Power can move with the speed of the electronic signal – and so the time required for the movement of its essential ingredients has been reduced to instantaneity. For all practical purposes, power has become truly exterritorial, no longer bound, or even slowed down, by the resistance of space (the advent of cellular telephones may well serve as a symbolic ‘last blow’ delivered to the dependency on space: even the access to a telephone market is unnecessary for a command to be given and seen through to its effect. ^[50]

Consequent to debate about economic globalization, the comparative analysis of civilizations, and the post-colonial perspective of «alternative modernities,» Shmuel Eisenstadt introduced the concept of «multiple modernities».^[51][11] 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».^[11]

Secularization[edit]

Modernity, or the Modern Age, is typically defined as a post-traditional,^{[citation needed]} and post-medieval historical period,^[52] 66–67). Central to modernity is emancipation from religion, specifically the hegemony of Christianity (mainly Roman Catholicism), and the consequent secularization. According to writers like Fackenheim and Husserl, modern thought repudiates the Judeo-Christian belief in the Biblical God as a mere relic of superstitious ages.^{[53][54][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.^{[55][56][note 2]}

Theologians have adapted in different ways to the challenge of modernity. Liberal theology, over perhaps the past 200 years or so, has tried, in various iterations, to accommodate, or at least tolerate, modern doubt in expounding Christian revelation, while Traditionalist Catholics, Eastern Orthodox and fundamentalist Protestant thinkers and clerics have tried to fight back, denouncing skepticism of every kind. ^{[57][58][59][60][note 3]} Modernity aimed towards «a progressive force promising to liberate humankind from ignorance and irrationality», ^[61] but as of 2021, Hindu fundamentalism in India and Islamic fundamentalism particularly in the Middle East remain problematic, meaning that intra-society value conflicts are by no means an intrinsically Christian phenomenon.

Scientific[edit]

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, 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.^[62]

Francis Bacon, especially in his Novum Organum, argued for a new methodological approach. It was an experimental based approach to science, which sought no knowledge of formal or final causes.^{[citation needed]} Yet, he was no materialist. He also talked of the two books of God, God’s Word (Scripture) and God’s work (nature).^[63] 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.^[62]

Influenced both by Galileo’s new physics and Bacon, René Descartes argued soon afterward 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.^[64]

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.^[65][66]

Technological[edit]

One common conception of modernity is the condition of Western history since the mid-15th century, or roughly the European development of movable type^[67] and the printing press.^[68] In this context the «modern» society is said to develop over many periods, and to be influenced by important events that represent breaks in the continuity.^[69][70][71]

Artistic[edit]

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.^[72]

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».^[73]

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».^[74]

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.

Theological[edit]

From conservative Protestant theologian Thomas C. Oden’s perspective, «modernity» is marked by «four fundamental values»:^[75]

• «Moral relativism (which says that what is right is dictated by culture, social location, and situation)»
• «Autonomous individualism (which assumes that moral authority comes essentially from within)»
• «Narcissistic hedonism (which focuses on egocentric personal pleasure)»
• «Reductive naturalism (which reduces what is reliably known to what one can see, hear, and empirically investigate)»

Modernity rejects anything «old» and makes «novelty … a criterion for truth.» This results in a great «phobic response to anything antiquarian.» In contrast, «classical Christian consciousness» resisted «novelty».^[75]

Within Roman Catholicism, Pope Pius IX and Pope Pius X claim that Modernism (in a particular definition of the Catholic Church) is a danger to the Christian faith. Pope Pius IX compiled a Syllabus of Errors published on December 8, 1864, to describe his objections to Modernism.^[76] Pope Pius X further elaborated on the characteristics and consequences of Modernism, from his perspective, in an encyclical entitled «Pascendi dominici gregis» (Feeding the Lord’s Flock) on September 8, 1907.^[77] Pascendi Dominici Gregis states that the principles of Modernism, taken to a logical conclusion, lead to atheism. The Roman Catholic Church was serious enough about the threat of Modernism that it required all Roman Catholic clergy, pastors, confessors, preachers, religious superiors and seminary professors to swear an Oath Against Modernism^[78] from 1910 until this directive was rescinded in 1967, in keeping with the directives of the Second Vatican Council.^{[citation needed]}

Defined[edit]

Of the available conceptual definitions in sociology, modernity is «marked and defined by an obsession with ‘evidence’,» visual culture, and personal visibility.^[79] Generally, the large-scale social integration constituting modernity, involves the:^{[citation needed]}

• increased movement of goods, capital, people, and information among formerly discrete populations, and consequent influence beyond the local area
• increased formal social organization of mobile populaces, development of «circuits» on which they and their influence travel, and societal standardization conducive to socio-economic mobility
• increased specialization of the segments of society, i.e., division of labor, and area inter-dependency
• increased level of excessive stratification in terms of social life of a modern man
• Increased state of dehumanisation, dehumanity, unionisation, as man became embittered about the negative turn of events which sprouted a growing fear.
• man became a victim of the underlying circumstances presented by the modern world
• Increased competitiveness amongst people in the society (survival of the fittest) as the jungle rule sets in.

See also[edit]

Notes[edit]

References[edit]

Bibliography[edit]

Further reading[edit]

External links[edit]

• Media related to Modernity at Wikimedia Commons