We explain how modernity differs from postmodernity, the eras in which they emerged, their values, goals and other characteristics.
What is the difference between modernity and postmodernity?
When we talk about modernity and postmodernity, we are referring to two different philosophical and cultural paradigms, which broadly define the way of thinking of the Western world from the end of the 15th century to the beginning of the 21st century.
These are two tendencies of thought that present points of contact and major points found, especially because Postmodern thought is the critique or crisis of modern thought..
It is important to understand that we are not talking here about two different eras, although each paradigm, in fact, corresponded to a historical moment of birth. But, although the emergence of modernity in the 15th century as a scheme of Western thought was what gave the Modern Age its name, we should not confuse the doctrine of thought and the historical division. Especially since there is no “postmodern era.”
In any case, modernity emerged at the end of the Middle Ages, as a current of rationalist thought. Thus, he broke with the medieval religious tradition and laid the foundations for the emergence of science as we know it today.
Fruit of the thought of philosophers such as René Descartes (1593-1650), it placed the human being at the center of the known world (instead of God) and made him the owner and responsible for his destiny. Therefore, modern thought He was very prone to pursuing great social utopias and the great enlightened projects, as attempted by the French Revolution: Liberty, Equality, Fraternity.
Instead, Postmodernism emerged as a concept at the end of the 20th centurybringing together a very different set of aesthetic, philosophical, artistic and cultural trends that, after the numerous and tragic events of the 20th century, distrusted the promises of modernity.
postmodernity was particularly opposed to the idealization of scientific and technological developmentwhich promised that it would always play in favor of the well-being of human beings: two atomic bombs seem to affirm the opposite.
Thus, the fundamental difference between modernity and postmodernity has to do with their position towards “progress”: while the former pursues it at all costs and places it as the objective to be achieved, the latter views it with suspicion, with suspicion. That is why it is common to say that postmodernity is the crisis stage of modernity, its moment of break and transformation.
This and other differences can be summarized as follows:
| Modernity | Postmodernity |
|---|---|
| It emerged in the 15th century and broke with the prevailing medieval tradition. | It emerged in the 20th century (70s-80s) and broke with the prevailing modern promise. |
| He places his faith in human reason and in scientific-technological progress, expressed above all through industrialization. | He distrusts human reason and scientific-technological progress, and points out how industrialization does not necessarily lead to a state of general well-being. |
| It defends the accumulation of knowledge, in the terms in which the Enlightenment and encyclopedism put it. Knowing more is being freer. | Review the way in which knowledge has been accumulated, opposing the idea of hegemony or a single way of thinking about things. Value plurality and diversity. |
| It is prone to utopias and great projects of humanity. Believe in ideologies. | He opposes utopias and ideologies, and points out how great human values can be absent in modern society. |
| Values the idea of the nation, national identity and the modern republican State. | It aspires to the global and the misplaced, to the erasure of borders and the free flow of information. |
| It aspires to common well-being through the control and planning of society. | He is individualistic, distrustful of social controls. |
| Think of industrialization as the path to human progress. | Defends the environment and warns about the ecological collapse of the industrial model. |
Continue with: Modern science
References
- “Modernity” on Wikipedia.
- “Postmodernity” on Wikipedia.
- “Modernity, postmodernity and utopian realism” at the University of La Plata (Argentina).
- “Modernity and postmodernity” (video) on YouTube.
