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Modernity and History
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 April 2024
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Does modernity still have a future? The news from the modern world suggests a negative answer. It is true, the project of modernity, in the fourth century after its inception, has still not been brought to its completion. Modern man has not yet succeeded in establishing himself as maître et possesseur de la nature. Nevertheless, he has elevated himself above his earthly existence by mastering the laws of space travel; the man in the moon, formerly a mythological figure, has now an American name. Modern man has not yet reached Utopia where the necessity of labor and the ease of leisure would be reconciled; in many regards, he is still bound to toil for his subsistence. But he has invented artificial intelligence and thus has found a humanoid substitute for an endless number of cumbersome tasks; work is transformed into computer games. Modern man has not yet become the Lord of his life, he continues to miss a complete control over infirmities, afflictions, and, finally, death. But he has fathomed the biochemical basis of life and acquired the skills to manipulate the forms of being; the breath of life is recorded as genetic code.
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- Copyright © 1983 Fédération Internationale des Sociétés de Philosophie / International Federation of Philosophical Societies (FISP)
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Notes and References
1 Descartes, Discours de la methode, Text and commentary by E. Gilson, Paris, 1947, pp. 61-62.
2 Tarrow, S., Between Center and Periphery, Grassroot Politicians in Italy and France, New Haven, 1977; Tarrow, Katzenstein, P., Graziano, L., Territo rial Politics in Industrial Nations, New York, 1978; Sharpe, L.J., ed., Decen tralist Trends in Western Democracies, London, 1979.
3 In the French Midi, there is a renaissance of literature in Occitan, a language that had been thought "dead" for a long time. See Dahrendorf, R., Life Chances, Approaches to Social and Political Theory, Chicago, 1979, p. 140: "Today hope is born from difference rather than from resemblance: liberty is born from inequality rather that from equality." O. Paz, Los Hijos Del Limo. Del romanticismo a la vangardia, Barcelona, 1974. "The rebels of the Third World and the rebellions of ethnic and national minorities in industrial societies are the insurrection of oppressed particularisms by another particularism that assumes the appearance of universality: Western capitalism."
4 In the case of the Federal Republic of Germany, the pressure of the ecologists—or the "Greens "—and their allies within the Social-Democrat Party in power have succeeded in imposing a moratorium on the program of nuclear energy development.
5 Peyrefitte, A., Ed., Réponses à la violence. Rapport du comité d'étude sur la violence, Paris, 1977; Rolinski, K., Wohnhausarchitektur und Kriminalität, Wiesbaden, 1980.
6 Szczot, F. H., Eléments analytiques de l'espace urbain, Essai de définition du paysage de la ville a l'échelle de L'homme, Paris, 1974; Appleyard, D., ed., The Conservation of European Cities, Cambridge, Mass., 1979; Reed, R. E., Return to the City, New York, 1979; Biennale de Paris, A la recherche de l'ur banité: savoir faire la ville, savoir vivre la ville, Paris, 1980; Rosenthal, D. B., ed., Urban Revitalization, London, Beverly Hills, 1980; "The Revitalization of Inner-City Neighborhoods," Urban Affairs Quarterly, Vol. 15, No. 4, June 1980; Lynch, K., A Theory of Good City Form, Cambridge, Mass., 1981.
7 These premises and aims were explicitly formulated by some modern philosophers, such as L. Feuerbach, Das Wesen des Christenthums, in Samtliche Werke, ed. W. Bolin, F. Jold, Vol. VI, reprint Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt, 1960, p. 131. See also Schabert, T., Gewalt und Humanität, Über philosophische und politische Manifestationen von Modernität, Munich-Fribourg, 1978.
8 The peace movement in Europe and America is the most recent expression of this. Among the most important spokesmen we will mention Somerville, J., "Nuclear Omnicide. It is now everyone's responsibility to prevent the holo caust," The Churchman, August-September, 1979; Lens, S., "A-Bomb Almanac," The Nation, April 4, 1981; Paz, O., op. cit., p. 192: "In the past few years there has been a sharp change. People are beginning to view the future with horror and what yesterday passed for miracles of progress are revealed to be its disasters."
9 Dahrendorf, op. cit., p. 119.
10 Berger, P. L., Facing up to Modernity. Excursions in Society, Politics and Religion, New York, 1977, p. 70 et seq.
11 Dahrendorf, op. cit., pp. 22, 117, 164.
12 Berger, P. L., Berger, B., Kellner, H., The Homeless Mind, Modernization and Consciousness, New York, 1973 (Vintage Book Editions, New York, 1974).
13 Paz, op. cit., pp. 9, 190, 191.
14 Cf. Blake, P., Form Follows Fiasco, Why Modern Architecture Hasn't Worked, Boston, 1974; Schulz, E., Das kurze Leben der modernen Architektur. Betrachtungen über die Spätzeit des Bauhauses, Stuttgart, 1977.
15 Branfels, S., et al.; Der ‘vermessene' Mensch. Anthropomethrie in Kunst und Wissenschaft, Munich, 1973; Alsopp, B., Towards a Humane Architecture, Lon don, 1974; Jencks, C. A., The Language of Post Modern Architecture, London, 1977; Bloomer, K. C., Moore, C. W., Body, Memory and Architecture, New Haven, 1977; Norberg-Schulz, C., Genius Loci. Towards a Phenomenology of Architecture, New York, 1980.
16 Cf. Kesselman, M., "Over-institutionalization and Political Constraints. The Case of France," Comparative Politics, Vol. 3, No. 1, 1970, pp. 21-44; Crozier, M., La société bloquée, Paris, 1967; Crozier, M., Friedberg, E., L'acteur et le système. Les contraintes de l'action collective, Paris, 1977.
17 Berger, P., et al., op. cit. pp. 157-158; Dahrendorf, op. cit., p. 30 et seq.; Berger, Facing up to Modernity, p. 75 et seq.
18 Passmore, J., Man's Responsibility for Nature, London, 1974; and the remarks of R. Dahrendorf on the meaning of history in Life Changes, p. 4 et seq.
19 Turgot, Discours sur les progrès successifs de l'esprit humain, 1750; idem, Discours sur l'histoire universelle, 1750; Voltaire, Abrégé de l'histoire univer selle, 1753; Rousseau, Discours sur l'origine et les fondements de l'inégalité parmi les hommes, 1755; Kant, Idee zu einer allgemeinen Geschichte in welt bürgerlicher Absicht, 1784; Condorcet, Esquisse d'un tableau historique des progrès de l'esprit humain, 1795; Schiller, Was heisst und zu welchem Ende studiert man Universalgeschichte?, 1798; Fichte, Grtmdzüge des gegenwärtigen Zeilalters, 1806; Comte, Considérations philosophiques sur les sciences et les savants, 1825; Hegel, Die Vernunft in der Geschichte, 1822/28, 1830.
20 Schelling, F. W. J., Philosophe der Kunst in Werke, Vol. V, Stuttgart-Augsborg, 1859, p. 427; "Die moderne Welt beginnt, indem sich der Mensch von der Natur losreisst."
21 Glanvill, J., "Modern Improvements of Useful Knowledge," in Essays on Several Important Subjects in Philosophy and Religion, London, 1676, reprinted Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt, 1970, pp. 34, 36.
22 Bacon, F., Novum Organum—Aphorismi de interpretatione naturae et regno hominis (LXVIII), in The Works of Francis Bacon, ed. J. Spedding, R. L. Ellis, D. D. Heath, Vol. 1, London, 1858, reprinted Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt, 1963, p. 179. See also Bacon, New Atlantis in op. cit. Vol. III, London, 1859 and Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt, 1963, p. 156. "The end of our foundation is the knowledge of Causes, and secret motions of things; and the enlarging of the bounds of human empire to the effecting of all things possible." See also Leiss, W., The Domination of Nature, New York, 1972.
23 Passmore, J., The Perfectibility of Man, London, 1971; Kant, Idee zu einer allgemeinen Geschichte in weltbürgerlicher Absicht in Kant, Werke, ed. W. Weischedel, Vol. IX, Darmstadt, 1971, p. 45: Man kann die Geschichte der Menschengattung im grossen als die Vollziehung eines verborgenen Plans der Natur ansehen, um eine innerlich—und, zu diesem Zwecke, auch äusserlich voll kommene Staatsverfassung zu Stande zu bringen, als den einzigen Zustand, in welchem sie alle ihre Anlagen in der Menschheit völlig entwickeln kann… Man sieht: die Philosophie könne auch ihren Chiliasmus haben?".
24 The State (Etat, Staat, Stato) as a typically "modern" form of political society has coexisted throughout the entire modern era with older political forms such as tribal, empire, free city, and feudal societies, church or lay prin cipalities, and so on. Cf. also Berger et al., op. cit., p. 9: "A ‘modern society' as such does not exist; there are only more or less advanced societies in a continuing process of modernization."
25 Barbey, G., Gelber, C., Rapports entre l'environnement construit et le comportement humain, Lausanne, 1973; Olivier, P., ed., Shelter, Sign and Symbol, London, 1975; Rapoport, A., Human Aspects of Urban Form. Towards a Man-Environment Approach to Urban Form and Design, Oxford, 1977; Ministère de l'environnement et du cadre de vie (Paris), Construire avec le climat, Paris, 1979.
26 Levi-Strauss, C., L'Homme nu, Paris, 1971, p. 596 et seq.; Paz, op. cit.: "The poets of the modern age sought the principle of change; we, poets of the age which is beginning, will seek this constant principle which is at the root of change. We ask ourselves if there is not a common factor between The Odyssey and À la recherche du temps perdu."
27 Voegelin, E., The Ecumenic Age, Introduction, Baton Rouge, 1975, pp. 1- 58. Order and History, Vol. IV; Sandoz, E., The Voegelinian Revolution, Baton Rouge, 1981, pp. 82-83.