Modernism - an Introduction to the Semester - (2/9)
The Age of Modernity
Artistic Modernism, or Modern Art, arose from within cultural Modernity, a much larger and longer-lived phenomenon.
The Age of Modernity may be thought of as beginning with the Enlightenment (1687 to 1789).
- Three of the most important thinkers:
- Sir Isaac Newton
- René Descartes (1596-1650)
- Immanuel Kant (1724-1804)
- Important discourses found during this period privilege the concept of logical reasoning:
- the potential of science to save the world
- through reason scholars could establish a foundation of universal truths (metanarratives)
- through reason there could be progress in social change
- Major movements within Modernity:
- democracy
- capitalism
- industrialization
- science
- urbanization
- secularization
- the rallying flags of
- Modernist beliefs
- rationalism
- theory can mirror reality
- unified and coherent foundations of truth that are universally true and applicable
- the individual is the center of the universe
- Descartes's dictum, "I think therefore I am"
- Sartre's claim that the individual is free and undetermined
On page 3 of their work, Postmodern Theory: Critical Interrogations (New York: Guilford Press, 1991), Steven Best and Douglas Keller define modernization as a term denoting those processes of individualization, secularization, industrialization, cultural differentiation, commodification, urbaniation, bureaucratization, and rationalization which together have constituted the modern world.
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