A Critical View of Modernism (original) (raw)

THE RELIGIOUS AND SPIRITUAL UNDERPINNINGS OF MODERNITY

The modern world understands itself as being something entirely new in the history of mankind. Modernity describes itself as the age in which mankind reaches adulthood and in which man becomes free and emancipates itself from external constraints and determination. The present-day world was born due duet o a new understanding of man, world, society, and due to the development of technology and afterward sciences. This development is presented as a continuous march toward inescapable progress, and as asteadly increase in rationality which will lead to the complete and total emancipation of man. But modernity is not the product of only reason and technical and supposed moral progress. The tools to understand the real forces behind this development that created modern world can be find in the works of Pierre-Andre Taguieff and in the sociology of Jacques Ellul. The first offers a deep analysis of a concept that undergirds modernity, the concept of emanicpations, and the other author describes the development of modernity as amounting to the total suversion of reality through the technological system.The forces fueling this state of affairs are greed and lust for power. The wish of total emancipation can be seen as another expression of what psychoanalysis called the infantile wish to omnipotence.

Reflections on the Concept of Modernity

Oxford Scholarship Online

Part I contains theoretical reflections on the two central concepts of the book: modernity and religion. This chapter on the concept of modernity begins by addressing the main reservations that have been expressed concerning the classic approaches to this concept in sociology. After discussing objections to modernization theory, the chapter presents an outline of a theory of modernity that serves as the basis for the argumentation of the entire book. The theory of modernity proposes three theses. First, that modern societies are characterized by principles of functional differentiation. Second, perpendicular to functional differentiation, which takes place horizontally, there is in modern societies also a form of vertical differentiation. Third, modern societies have established in the economy, politics, science, and other areas forums of competition, markets where different suppliers compete for acceptance. They are the driving forces behind the dynamism of modern societies.

Theorising Modernity - SOC3705

This essay consisted of two sections. In both these sections I will explain theories of Max Weber from the perspective of Jurgen Habermas. The first section deals with Weber’s notion of rationalisation. Here I will start off by very briefly introducing the two theorists. I will then describe the concept rationality. Weber posited four types of rationality, these being practical, theoretical, substantive and formal rationality. I will give an explanation of the types of rationality. After some insight into Weber’s rationalisation, I will look at how Habermas viewed Weber’s concept of rationalisation. In the second section I will look at colonising of the lifeworld by the system. I will explain the different structures that the lifeworld consists of, namely, culture, society or community and personality. Then I will touch on the meaning of colonisation and the antagonistic system. Finally, I will address Habermas’s view of Weber’s ideas of colonising of the lifeworld. My focus will be on modernity causing conflict, pathologies arising due to colonisation and reversing the process of colonisation, for the mutual benefit of the lifeworld and the system. According to Weber, rationalisation is a western concept with potential to increase and limit human freedom. Let us now look at Habermas’s perspective of Weber’s theories.

The transformation of our conduct of life: One aspect of the three epochs of Western modernity

Distinktion Scandinavian Journal of Social Theory, 2006

In this article a concept of structural transformation is worked out and applied on the history of modernity. It involves a distinction hetween abstract modernity and epochs of realized modernities. The general theory of a structural transformation of modernity is applied on a special case; the transformation of the modern conduct of life in the West. The Webedan concept 'conduct of life' is today almost forgotten, but the author argues that it is a very useful conceptual tool for grasping crucial aspects of everyday life. These theoretical points of departure are then related to some classical American sociological investigations, hut also to recent investigations. The result is a division of the history of conduct of life in Western modernity in three different epochs: the age of asceticism, the age of organization and the age of authenticity.

Catholic Reflections on the Basis of the Pluralist Structure of Society

Journal of Markets Morality, 2012

In his paper, "Human Dignity, Personal Liberty," Michael Novak has clearly pointed out the contribution of a rejuvenated economic science (in the properly understood sense of the term), founded on the person and placed in the historical context of old-world statism, burgeoning socialism, and a relatively sterile economic science modeled on mathematics. While it is true that Leo XIII did point out the major flaws of both socialism and the older authoritarian system, as Schumpeter discussed, there really is no thorough defense of capitalism as a moral economic system. 1 The result has been that discussion of the free market, even by Christians, has been mostly ideological. 2 Novak's works are a major contribution to the clarification of the truth of the market economy and its compatibility to man's God-given nature and to Catholic teaching. The purpose of this paper is to examine a major stumbling block in the acceptance of the freedom required of man, and due to man, in the economic and political spheres. That stumbling block is the inability of many wellmeaning Christians, academics included, to deal with the existence of evil in society.