We explain what modernity is and the changes it has brought about since the 15th century. We also explain what its characteristics are.
Modernity prioritized rationality and scientific thinking.
What is modernity?
Modernity is a set of social and intellectual processes that emerged in Europe from the 15th centuryat the beginning of the Renaissance, and which marked the end of the Middle Ages.
Along with individualism, the scientific method and changes in thinking (which prioritized rationality), there were political changes that profoundly modified the institutions of the State, as well as the delimitation of political and economic borders.
Although the changes of modernity occurred gradually, they affected social life, work, living space, power relations, aesthetic experiences, etc.
Characteristics of modernity
- Modernity emerged as a social and intellectual phenomenon in Western Europe in the 15th century. It coincided with the beginning of the Modern Age and subsequently spread to most of the world.
- In intellectual terms, modernity represented the abandonment of religious orthodoxy in the way of understanding the universe and intervening in the world, and its replacement by reason, logic and the scientific method.
- The emphasis placed by modernity on the critical and rational individual It was related in the field of thought and art to the abandonment of theocentrism in favor of anthropocentrism, manifest in humanism and the Renaissance. The effects of the Protestant Reformation may also have contributed to sustaining this emphasis on the individual.
- In political terms, modernity meant the formation of nation-states and the deployment of political ideologies that encouraged the division of powers, such as liberalism.
- Modernity was related to the transoceanic expansioninnovations in communication and transport and the establishment of a world economy based on trade and colonial domination. This process promoted the development of an industrial society in whose cities the social inequalities of capitalism were reflected, especially from the 19th century onwards.
- The intellectual foundations of modernity They were put into discussion from the middle of the 20th centuryby the movement known as postmodernism.
Historic context
The term “modernity” is applied to a series of phenomena that took place in Western Europe starting in the 15th century and then expanded on a global scale. Its emergence coincides with the beginning of the Modern Agewhich some historians place at the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire in 1453 and others at the arrival of Christopher Columbus in America in 1492.
Anyway, some of the characteristics that define modernity They have antecedents in the late Middle Ages (such as humanism) and others reach the Contemporary Age (for example, the emphasis on reason and the scientific method). Modern thought in the West began to be questioned in the mid-20th century by exponents of so-called postmodernism.
modern thought
Reason and logic
During the Modern Age, religious explanations were replaced by rational explanations.
Reason as opposed to religion is one of the axes of modern thought, eloquently expressed in the ideas of the Enlightenment. Starting in the Modern Age, religion ceased to be the only discourse for explaining the world, and science was established as a method to understand natural and human phenomena.
The myth was replaced by logic and this had repercussions not only on philosophy and science but also on politics and economics, as well as on the formulation of an ideal of progress that lasted until the 20th century.
Subjectivity, the basis of reason, became central to modern thought.. Individual reflection enabled criticism and self-realization, and promoted personal responsibility. This influenced the emergence of liberal thought and the new forms of political organization that were implemented from the end of the 18th century (especially republican democracies).
The break with tradition
The modernity was characterized in its beginnings by the desire for a break with the previousembodied in tradition. In art and thought, the antecedents were sought not in the recent past (the Middle Ages) but in the remote past (the Ancient Ages). This recovery of aspects of classical Greco-Roman culture is often called the Renaissance, and its most evident dimension was experienced in art.
Outside of that ancient reference, modernity It is usually characterized by the attraction for innovations and discoveriesThe scientific method is one of the most eloquent expressions of this disruptive trend that prioritizes the use of observation, logic and experimentation over the weight of authority and tradition (for example, against ecclesiastical orthodoxy).
The Protestant Reformation
The Protestant Reformation contributed to the conception of the individual as a rational being.
The Protestant Reformation was a Christian religious movement initiated in Germany in the 16th century by the theologian Martin Luther and that had exponents and variations in other places in Europe. The Catholic Church was divided by the criticism that various priests and thinkers made of the institution, especially in opposition to the absolute authority of the Pope and the corruption linked to the sale of indulgences.
This movement proposed a return to early Christianity and He postulated that salvation depended exclusively on faith and personal repentance.. For this reason, it is believed that he contributed to the secularization process driven by humanism and the scientific method, characteristic of modernity, focused on the individual as a critical and rational being.
The political organization
Nation-States
Since the beginning of the modern age, political-territorial structures similar to those that exist today began to be defined in Europe. A nation-state has:
- A defined territory
- A constant population (although there are migratory phenomena)
- a bureaucracy
- a centralized government
The first impulse towards the configuration of modern States occurred in Europe as part of the decomposition of the feudal regime, which was dominant during the Middle Ages.
The European order centered on nation states largely derived from the Peace of Westphalia signed in 1648, at the end of the Thirty Years’ War. Through this treaty, Several European governments admitted the principles of territorial sovereignty of the States. Later, the idea of national sovereignty was strengthened as a result of liberal thought and historical events such as the French Revolution.
The division of powers
Modernity introduced the division of powers.
The form of government of feudal monarchies had a single ruler who concentrated power in his personPower was legitimized by descent, military power or the Church.
Modernity introduced the division of powers within the State in accordance with the political principles of the Enlightenment and liberalism. Today this division is in force in a good part of state societies and includes:
Bureaucracy
The administration of modern states came to depend increasingly on rationality supported by a large number of personnel. Thus the so-called “bureaucracy” emerged. Those who are part of it work in public entities who are responsible for maintaining the day-to-day functioning of the State. In its early days, the bureaucracy was usually made up of sections of the bourgeoisie.
Modern economy
Conquest of America and colonial expansion
The European discovery and subsequent conquest of America, whose lands were inhabited by indigenous populationswere some of the triggers of modernity, but also some of its symptoms: the trip to the American continent was a fortuitous result of the scientific calculation that the Earth was spherical (whose antecedents went back to classical antiquity).
Besides, was motivated by commercial expansion purposesa necessity inherent in an economic model that gave rise to the globalization of the economy and capitalism.
The arrival on a continent previously unknown to Europeans allowed them to exploit new resources and labor (sometimes slave) and the establishment of colonial relations. The Atlantic trade axis and other transoceanic exploration voyages contributed to the expansion not only of economic relations but also of patterns of cultural and political life.
Innovations in communication and transport in the late modern and early contemporary ages facilitated the accumulation and circulation of wealth. This benefited the industrial and commercial bourgeoisies of the great European powers, which later It also encouraged economic development and the emergence of new forms of social inequality. in other regions of the world.
Industrial society
In modern times, factories were developed where work was organized.
The change from a rural society to an industrial society was gradual, but no less decisive. The Industrial Revolution (which began at the end of the 18th century and beginning of the 19th century) gave impetus to this process that subsequently modified the world economy and the appearance of cities.
The characteristics of this type of society that appeared with modernity are:
- The increase in production through the organization and division of labor.
- The development of factories where work was organized.
- The invention and manufacture of machines that replaced manual labor. This is a precursor to technological innovations aimed at increasing profits that are still in force today, when scientific and technological developments are constantly applied to production.
- The emergence of a new social sector, salaried workers, and the strengthening of an industrial bourgeoisie.
Industrial society required a concentration of population since work was organized in factories.
Cities became centers of production but simultaneously places of greatest consumption of goods, services and energy. These cities depended, in turn, on the primary production of food that took place in the fields.
The social inequalities that became evident in the large industrial cities of the 19th century influenced the emergence of political movements that questioned the social effects of capitalism (especially socialism).
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References
- “The four parts of the world. History of a globalization” Fondo de Cultura Económica. Gruzinski, S. (2011).
- “The Making of the West. Peoples and Cultures.” Hunt, L., Martin, TR,…