Modernity facts for kids

Modernity is a big idea in history and social studies. It refers to a special time in history, often called the modern era. It also describes the new ways of thinking, acting, and living that started after the Renaissance. These new ideas really took off during the Age of Enlightenment in the 17th and 18th centuries.

Some people think the modern era ended around 1930, or after World War II in 1945, or even in the 1980s or 1990s. The time after that is sometimes called postmodernity. The term "contemporary history" is also used for the time after 1945. So, "modern" can mean a specific time in the past, not just "right now."

Modernity can mean different things depending on what you are studying. In history, the 16th to 18th centuries are often called the early modern period. The "long 19th century" (from 1789 to 1914) is seen as the main modern history period. Modernity includes many changes, from new fashion to modern warfare. It also describes how these changes affect people's lives, cultures, and governments.

This idea is linked to modern art and new ways of thinking in philosophy. It also covers how societies changed with the rise of capitalism. People started to think differently about religion (called secularization) and became more free (called liberalization). There was also a focus on making things new and better (called modernization).

By the late 19th and 20th centuries, modern art, politics, science, and culture became very important. They spread not just in Western Europe and North America, but almost everywhere. The modern era is strongly connected to the growth of individualism (focus on the individual). It also links to capitalism, the growth of urbanization (cities), and a strong belief in progress through technology and politics.

However, wars and other problems came with these fast changes. People also felt a loss of traditional religious and ethical rules. This led to many reactions against modern developments. The idea of constant progress has been questioned by postmodernism. Also, the strong influence of Western countries has been criticized by postcolonial theory.

In art history, modernity (modernité) has a more specific meaning. Modern art usually refers to the period from about 1860 to 1970. The poet Charles Baudelaire used this term in 1863. He described it as the "fleeting, quick experience of life in a big city." He believed art should capture this feeling. In this sense, modernity means a special way of looking at time. It involves big changes, being open to new things in the future, and really noticing what is unique about the present.

What Does "Modern" Mean?

The word "modern" comes from the Late Latin word modernus. This word appeared around the 5th century CE. It was first used to tell the Christian era apart from the older Pagan era of the Greco-Roman world. In the 6th century CE, the Roman historian Cassiodorus was one of the first to use modernus regularly to talk about his own time.

In the Carolingian era (early Middle Ages), antiquus (old) and modernus (modern) were used to describe time. For example, a magister modernus was a current scholar. This was different from older experts like Benedict of Nursia. In those early days, "modern" could even include writers who lived several centuries ago. It referred to the time after the Western Roman Empire fell.

The Latin word became moderne in Middle French by the 15th century. Then, in the Early Modern English period, it came into English. At first, "modern" just meant "existing now" or "about the present time." It didn't always mean something good. For example, William Shakespeare used "modern" to mean "everyday" or "ordinary."

The word became widely used in the late 17th century. This was during a famous debate in France called the "quarrel of the Ancients and the Moderns." People argued: "Is modern culture better than ancient Greek and Roman culture?" The "ancients" thought writers should only copy the great works of the past. But the "moderns," led by Charles Perrault, believed that their time had gone beyond what was possible in ancient times. In this debate, the word "modernity" (first used in the 1620s) started to mean a historical period after the Renaissance. A time when new achievements were even greater than those of ancient times.

Different Periods of Modernity

Modernity is linked to cultural and intellectual changes from 1436 to 1789, and even up to the 1970s or later.

According to a scholar named Marshall Berman, modernity can be divided into three main phases:

• Early modernity: 1500–1789 (or 1453–1789 in some history books).
  • During this time, people started to experience life in new ways.
• Classical modernity: 1789–1900 (this matches the "long 19th century" from 1789–1914).
  • This period saw the rise of daily newspapers, telegraphs, telephones, and other mass media. These helped people communicate over much wider areas.
• Late modernity: 1900–1989.
  • This phase involved modern life spreading all over the world.

In the second phase, new technologies like newspapers and the telegraph became very important. There was a big move towards modernization because of industrial capitalism. In the third phase, modern arts and individual creativity became key. They challenged unfair politics, economics, and other social forces, including mass media.

Some thinkers believe that modernity ended in the mid-to-late 20th century. They call the time after that Postmodernity (from the 1930s/1950s/1990s to today). Other experts, however, see the period from the late 20th century onwards as just another part of modernity. For example, Zygmunt Bauman calls it liquid modernity, and Anthony Giddens calls it high modernity.

What Defines Modernity?

Political Changes

Politically, the earliest part of modernity began with the works of Niccolò Machiavelli. He openly disagreed with the medieval way of looking at politics. Instead of focusing on how things should be, he looked at how things really are. He also suggested that a goal of politics is to control one's own luck or future. Machiavelli argued that disagreements within political groups are natural. He even thought they could be a source of strength if leaders managed them well.

Machiavelli's ideas influenced many later thinkers. These included Francis Bacon, John Milton, and David Hume.

Important modern political ideas that came from Machiavelli's realistic approach include:

• The idea that "private wrongs can lead to public benefits" if managed by a clever politician. This came from Bernard Mandeville's book Fable of the Bees.
• The idea of separating government powers into different branches. Montesquieu first clearly suggested this. Both these ideas are now part of most modern democracies.

Starting with Thomas Hobbes, people tried to use the scientific methods of Francis Bacon and René Descartes to understand humans and politics. Other thinkers like John Locke and Baruch Spinoza also tried to improve on Hobbes's ideas.

Modern republicanism (a system where power is held by the people and their elected representatives) influenced the creation of new republics. This happened during the Dutch Revolt (1568–1609), the English Civil War (1642–1651), the American Revolution (1775–1783), the French Revolution (1789–1799), and the Haitian revolution (1791–1804).

Later, Jean-Jacques Rousseau questioned whether humans were naturally rational or social. He suggested that human nature could change a lot. This meant that what makes a good political system depends on a people's history. This idea influenced Immanuel Kant and Edmund Burke. It led to new ways of thinking about politics. On one side, Burke argued for being careful and avoiding big changes. But more ambitious movements also grew from this idea, like Romanticism and Historicism. Eventually, it influenced both Communism (from Karl Marx) and modern forms of nationalism, including the German Nazi movement.

Some people also argue that the idea of modernity is too focused on Western (European and American) cultures. This is especially true as non-Western countries become more powerful.

Sociological Changes

Cover of the original German edition of Max Weber's The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism

Sociology is a field of study that started because of the social problems of modernity. In sociology, modernity generally refers to the social conditions and changes that came after the Age of Enlightenment. British sociologist Anthony Giddens describes modernity simply as:

...a quick way to say "modern society," or "industrial civilization." More detailed, it means (1) certain ways of thinking about the world, seeing it as something humans can change; (2) a group of economic systems, especially industrial production and a market economy; (3) certain political systems, like the nation-state and mass democracy. Because of these things, modernity changes much faster than any past type of society. It's a society that lives in the future, not the past.

Other thinkers say that modernity is more about new ways of being. They argue that modernity changes how we understand basic parts of human life: time, space, our bodies, how we act, and what we know. This means that modernity adds to older ways of life without always replacing them.

Historian Michael Saler noted that modernity includes both magic and a lack of magic. For example, people in the late Victorian era talked about science using magical terms. Mass culture, even with its simple parts, became a source of "magic" and wonder. So, modernity is not just about clear opposites. It's about different ideas and feelings existing at the same time.

Cultural and Philosophical Changes

The modern era is known for industrialisation and the division of labour in society. Philosophically, it's marked by "the loss of certainty." People realized that absolute truth might never be found. With these new social and philosophical conditions came big challenges. Many thinkers in the 19th century, like Auguste Comte, Karl Marx, and Sigmund Freud, tried to offer scientific or political ideas as secularisation grew. Modernity can be called the "age of ideology."

For Marx, modernity was based on the rise of capitalism and the new middle class (bourgeoisie). This led to huge growth in production and a global market. Émile Durkheim looked at modernity differently. He focused on industrialism and new scientific forces. In the work of Max Weber, modernity is closely linked to rationalization (making things more logical and efficient) and the "disenchantment of the world" (losing belief in magic or spiritual forces).

Some thinkers, like Theodor Adorno and Zygmunt Bauman, suggest that modernity or industrialization led to negative things. They talk about social alienation (feeling disconnected from others) and even events like the Holocaust. They argue that making everything rational can sometimes have a negative and dehumanizing effect on modern society.

Enlightenment, meaning the advance of thought, always aimed to free humans from fear and make them masters. Yet the fully enlightened earth shines under the sign of disaster winning.

Many people talk about the 'end of history' or 'post-modernity' because the long effort to speed things up has reached its limit. Power can move as fast as an electronic signal. So, the time needed for its main parts to move has become instant. Power has become truly global, no longer held back by space.

Because of debates about economic globalization and different civilizations, Shmuel Eisenstadt introduced the idea of "multiple modernities." This means that modernity is not just about Western European culture. Instead, it's a "plural condition." This idea says that "Modernity is not Westernization, and its key processes can be found in all societies."

Secularization (Less Focus on Religion)

Modernity, or the Modern Age, is often described as a time after traditional and medieval periods. A key part of modernity is moving away from the strong influence of religion, especially Christianity. This process is called secularization. Some writers believe that modern thought rejects the idea of the Biblical God as just an old superstition. It started with René Descartes's idea of methodic doubt. This changed the idea of truth from being guaranteed by God or the Church to being based on a person's own judgment.

Religious leaders have reacted to modernity in different ways. Liberal theology has tried to accept or at least tolerate modern doubts about faith. On the other hand, Traditionalist Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, and fundamentalist Protestant thinkers have tried to fight against skepticism. Modernity aimed to "free humankind from ignorance and irrationality." However, even today, strong religious movements like Hindu fundamentalism in India and Islamic fundamentalism in the Middle East show that conflicts over values are not just a Christian issue.

Scientific Changes

In the 16th and 17th centuries, scientists like Copernicus, Kepler, and Galileo developed new ways of studying physics and astronomy. This changed how people thought about many things. Copernicus showed new models of the Solar System where Earth was not the center. Kepler used mathematics to describe physics and found patterns in nature. Galileo used math to prove that objects fall at a steady rate.

Francis Bacon, especially in his book Novum Organum, argued for a new way of doing science. He believed in an experimental approach. He also said that science should try to control nature for the benefit of humanity, not just understand it. In these ideas, he was influenced by Machiavelli.

Later, René Descartes, influenced by Galileo and Bacon, argued that mathematics and geometry could be models for building scientific knowledge step by step. He also suggested that humans could be understood as complex machines.

Isaac Newton, influenced by Descartes and Bacon, showed how mathematical reasoning and experimental observation could lead to great progress in understanding nature's rules.

Technological Changes

One common idea of modernity is that it started in Western history around the mid-15th century. This was when movable type and the printing press were developed in Europe. In this view, modern society developed over many periods, influenced by important events that broke from the past.

Artistic Changes

After modern political ideas became popular in France, Jean-Jacques Rousseau's new look at human nature led to questioning the value of pure reason. This, in turn, led to a new understanding of less rational human activities, especially the arts. This first influenced movements like German Idealism and Romanticism in the 18th and 19th centuries. So, modern art belongs to the later parts of modernity.

For this reason, art history keeps the term modernity separate from "Modern Age" and "Modernism." In art, modernity means "the cultural condition where the need for innovation (newness) becomes a main part of life, work, and thought." Modernity in art is "more than just being modern, or the opposite of old and new."

In his 1863 essay "The Painter of Modern Life," Charles Baudelaire described modernity as: "By modernity I mean the passing, the fleeting, the accidental."

New technologies quickly changed what was possible in art and its place in a fast-changing society. Photography challenged painters. Architecture changed because steel became available for buildings.

Theological Changes (Religious Views)

From the view of conservative Protestant theologian Thomas C. Oden, modernity is marked by "four main values":

• "Moral relativism (which says what is right depends on culture, place, and situation)."
• "Autonomous individualism (which assumes moral authority comes from within oneself)."
• "Narcissistic hedonism (which focuses on self-centered personal pleasure)."
• "Reductive naturalism (which says what we truly know is only what we can see, hear, and test)."

Modernity rejects anything "old" and makes "newness... a test for truth." This leads to a strong "fear of anything old." In contrast, "classical Christian thinking" resisted "newness."

Within the Roman Catholic Church, Pope Pius IX and Pope Pius X believed that Modernism (as defined by the Church) was a danger to the Christian faith. Pope Pius IX wrote a list of errors in 1864, describing his problems with Modernism. Pope Pius X further explained Modernism in his 1907 letter "Pascendi dominici gregis" (Feeding the Lord's Flock). This letter stated that the ideas of Modernism, if followed to their end, would lead to atheism. The Roman Catholic Church was so serious about the threat of Modernism that it required all Catholic clergy to swear an Oath Against Modernism from 1910 until 1967.

What Defines a Modern Society?

In sociology, modernity is "marked by a focus on 'evidence,'" visual culture, and how visible people are. Generally, the big social changes that make up modernity involve:

• More movement of goods, money, people, and information between different groups. This leads to more influence beyond local areas.
• More formal social groups for people who move around. This creates "circuits" for them and their influence to travel. Society becomes more standardized, which helps people move up in society and economy.
• More specialization in different parts of society, like the division of labor. This means different areas depend on each other.
• More levels of social differences in a modern person's life.
• A growing feeling of being treated like an object, or a lack of kindness. People became bitter about negative events, which caused more fear.
• People became victims of the difficult situations created by the modern world.
• More competition among people in society, like the "survival of the fittest."

See also

In Spanish: Modernidad para niños