The concept of modernity has been subject to investigation by many scholars and largely concerns components of industrialization, urbanization, education, secularization, and the creation of mass media. Socio-technological developments such as the modern city, railway travel, and mass media promoted criticism of tradition, and, when combined with changes in lifestyle due to ongoing war and the introduction of urban consumerism, modernity can be further embodied by the antinomy of change and continuity. The such reinvention of society inevitably resulted in the scientific analysis of human existence and revaluation of the individual, invoked by an atmosphere of uncertainty and rapid change. This essay seeks to explore the Eurocentric concept of modernity and its attribution to contemporary intellectual and technological developments to confer how a sense of ‘modernity’ was constructed in a rapidly changing socio-technological climate. I shall begin by analyzing the technological impact of industrialization and urbanization, progressing to the examination of the impact of progressions in scientific thought, and concluding with the consideration of the ‘aesthetic’ revolutions of modernity.
Historiography of modernity is rather complex due to the versatility of the theory. Conditions of modernity can regionally vary distinctly, as explained by Eisenstadt, and so this investigation will focus on the development of modernism in Europe. The contributions of prominent individuals such as Darwin, Freud, and Marx create a general agreement that the revolution indicted by innovation can be characterized by the loss of tradition and religion wherein many began to question the state of human existence and purpose, leading to an influx of new ideas concerning anatomy, psychology and the brain in particular. These schools of thought must be considered within the contextual atmosphere of WWI and the turn of the century, a period that Bullock describes as the ‘double’ image of change and stability. The beginning of the twentieth century signified a new era for civilization in the watershed of industrialization, imperialism, and urbanization, effectively reinventing society.
Arguably the catalysts of modernity and central to understanding its conditions are the technological advancements introduced through industry, war, and the creation of cities. Urbanization was the advent of industrialization, a process that transformed the social constructs of work and family whilst introducing a prominent new urban working class. It was therefore the watershed of a multitude of new technologies that hastened the transition of societal infrastructure to become more akin to modern-day, particularly with the introduction of the steam engine into the textiles industry, which skyrocketed production and inspired the creation of factories. Preceded by the enclosure movement and agricultural developments, people began moving to urban centers for work, establishing the first modern cities. These became modern centers of pioneering technology, and processes of industrialization created communities that became hubs of innovation and communication, the heart of modernity. Bradbury labeled the tumultuous environments of the modern industrial city as appropriating “the functions and communications of society, most of the population, and the furthest extremities of its technological, commercial, industrial and intellectual experience”. Durkheim developed this, exploring the contrast between the individual and society, asserting that human nature itself is ‘inherently egoistic’, whereas the moral consciousness of society’s values is contradictory, so the collective attitudes of people must be attributed to social integration rather than intrinsic personal belief, a process enabled by mass migration. The city itself epitomized the culture of modernity in its incarnation of Bullock’s concept of change and continuity. The Industrial Revolution created an entirely new way of living through what Mason labels ‘the mechanization of production’, laying the foundation for modern capitalist society. This intellectual analysis of the technological revolution placed cities at the loci of modern European civilization. The steady industrialization of society into a consumer-based capitalist institution is a hallmark of modernity, clearly centering the creation of urban industry in modernist reformation. However, the epitome of the age of technology can be seen in the introduction of railways, radically reorganizing concepts of space and time by shortening travel times: introducing new travel routes, and bringing previously isolated communities into contact with cities. Railways remapped the country and the relationship between rural and urban populations, forever changing consciousness by standardizing nationwide times through the imposition of train schedules. This new development of time was cultivated alongside market capitalism, placing a different kind of value on how time was measured by replacing ‘agrarian’ time with ‘clock’ time, a technological feat intrinsic to modern living.
Evolutions in scientific thought paved the way for modernity when combined with technological advancements. Technological innovations compressed space and time, embodying metaphors for the subjective experience of modernity: the transformation of routine and the nature of social interactions. City consumerism contributed to the development of mass media; quicker communications across the country created a new sense of urbanization that reflects the notion of modernity. The implementation of the press enacted changes in the emerging concept of individualism, massively impacting the dissemination of information and expression of public opinion. A key theme of modernity is the breaking of tradition, and the media acted as a central component, shaping popular cognition by intertwining communication with consumerism. Cities were obviously central in this reorientation of time and thought, most notably perhaps in the construction of the Eiffel Tower as the beacon of the new radio age, and newspapers such as the Spectator sought to encourage intelligent discussion in everyday social settings to align with the evolving values of society. The ability to disseminate and discuss information through media forms the basis of Anderson’s ‘print capitalism’ theory, that the convergence of capitalism and print technology enabled the standardization of language, time, calendars, and nationalized political awareness or ‘imagined community’. Print capitalism was embodied in the publication of daily newspapers and other news outlets, allowing the development of intellectual participation and discussion in political, scientific, and social ‘imagined communities’ within a nation limited to capitalist societies. McLuhan built upon this idea, suggesting print capitalisms had a profound impact on cognition and social order: communication technologies changed habits and interactions to promote individual interpretation, rationality, and, as Baron asserts, “allowing for an extension of the senses” when combined with medical technological advancements. In achieving this logical transformation of thought and discussion in light of nationwide standardizations, “the linear and logical emphasis of writing was mirrored in the regimentation of clock time”, and reinventions of communication and work to conform to modern standards were critical in doing so, redefining daily routines and infrastructure. The coupling of the Industrial Revolution with technological advancement was conducive to creating the foundations of twentieth-century modernity.
The revaluation of the concept of time was influential in modern scientific developments of analysis of the physical world, namely Einstein’s theories of relativity. Relativity constituted a challenge to ecclesiastical philosophies of absolute laws and views of the universe: Einstein considered the question of the relationship between space and time, suggesting that ‘time’ depended on the position of the individual observer, giving rise to the concept of ‘space-time’, wherein time is the fourth dimension of space, creating a distinct condition of modernity in the understanding of human existence. As these ecumenical understandings came under the scrutinous eye of scientific evaluation, Darwin published ‘On the Origin of Species’ and later work ‘The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex’, debunking the myths of humanity and focusing discussion on the human body and life sciences. In an epitome of modernist scholarly pursuits, Darwin’s theories symbolize the transmogrification of perception of the biological world into an entirely modern mindset, often compared to Copernicus and Newton’s radical models of the physical world and its laws. Darwin introduced the evolutionary theory of natural selection in the survival of the fittest, rationalizing Earth’s biodiversity and embodying modernity through its revolutionary basis in observation, not tradition. Darwin’s focus on the struggle principle of human existence had a profound impact in both popular and scholarly fields, particularly the development of Freud’s pleasure principle of human existence.
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Life sciences are inseparable from emerging developments in subconscious thought theory, resulting in Freud’s ‘turn inwards towards the subconscious and the mind’. Darwin’s exploration of natural selection prompted Freud to hone into sexual selection and the study of the brain, leading to his most prominent concept, psychoanalysis. Freud encapsulates Bullock’s double image of change and stability by allying the rational scientific and technological developments of modernity with the difficult emotional reaction to change. He developed the idea of the unconscious mind and concluded that childhood experiences and traumas implicated emotional issues as adults, therefore, that man is governed less by reason but more by emotion and irrationality, challenging traditionalist understandings of human anatomy and purpose.
Freud’s tripartite of the psyche is composed of the instinctual ‘Id’, related to sexual and aggressive drive; the ‘Ego’, attributed to conscious personality and rational decision-making in situational context; and the moral ‘Superego’ which seeks to control reaction through the dual systems of conscience and the ideal self, morality. According to his theories of personality and psychoanalysis, the Id operates on the ‘pleasure principle’, linked to Darwin’s theories of sexual selection, the idea that impulses should be immediately satisfied to avoid tension, and therefore the Id is associated with primacy, fantasy, and irrationality. In contrast, the Ego seeks pleasure through the ‘reality principle’, that fulfilling desire must have a realistic strategy behind achievement, and if that fails, unconscious defense mechanisms are used: problem-solving or ‘reality testing’. Freud compares the Ego to a man on horseback, who has to hold in check the superior strength of the horse, the horse being the Id. The Superego, however, functions as the moral compass of the brain, seeking to control the impulses of the Id, especially in terms of sex and aggression, and the moral aspect of the Ego’s decisions, perhaps through emotions such as pride and guilt depending on the decision made. This psychoanalytic model of the brain comprises the foundation of Freud’s personality theories and the revolutionary birth of psychological schools of thought. Freud, therefore, utilized technological medical developments to enact the complete reconception of mental illness in popular belief, placing a rational explanation on irrational, anti-social behaviors. Psychoanalysis defied religious preconceptions of the brain, introducing new medical treatments such as talk therapy that reemphasized the communicative component of modern society. Later work of his addresses the fundamental paradox of modernity: society was created to fuel the innate desires of the Id, yet is the largest source of contempt through the imposition of cultural ideals, and repression of instinct needed to function in the constrictive ideology of civilization. Combined, Darwin and Freud’s work is the crux of scientific modernity due to the secularization of anatomy and education.
However, Darwin and Freud’s biological theories of human existence must be analyzed in tandem with Marx’s sociological theories of modern civilization in order to understand the foundations of sociological modernity. With the dawn of the age of technology came steady secularization, the breaking of tradition, and the initiation of democracy and introspection. Antoine Destutt de Tracy, the man who coined the term ‘ideology’ argued: “The science of ideas would demystify society just as natural science had demystified nature”. Karl Marx, the true founder of modern sociology, 'in so far as anyone can claim the title', claimed to have discovered the natural laws of human society: the history of class struggles. He believed that the economic structure of the class was reflected in social consciousness and that socio-political relationships between people are thus dependent on material production. His vision of modern society would find its apex in the proletariat revolution against capitalism, and the establishment of socio-economic emancipation, derived from the instability in new capitalist states. Similar to Marx, Weber highlighted the economic dependence of society, hypothesizing that status, class, and therefore power defines society’s split into a hierarchal bureaucracy designed to ensure industrial success – the centralization of economic infrastructure in modern cities. Evidently, the sciences of society, man, and mind, the central struggle of existence vs the pursuit of pleasure, are irrevocably intertwined in the conditions of modernity: they serve as key scientific revelations that reshaped popular understanding of ourselves and the physical world around, shaping Europe into societies recognizable today.
These intellectual and industrial developments also had a profound impact on modern culture, especially in the ‘aesthetic sphere’ of art, arguably the principal actor in the popular promotion of modernism. WWI and the creation of modern cities instigated the beginning of modernist movements that echoed the ‘double image’ of war and change, innovation, and continuity: Bullock viewed Cubism as the ‘first truly twentieth-century painting’ in its break from tradition through disregard for anatomy. However, the two major aspects of modernity that influenced modern art were time and psychoanalysis. Dali and many other Surrealists were fascinated by psychology and the unconscious mind, particularly the significance of the dream state and its supposed creative links. Consequently, Surrealists followed the ideas of Sigmund Freud, demonstrating his drastic impact on modernism. Following Freud’s theories, Surrealists interpreted dreams to have ambiguous meanings and created paintings that explored these intricacies through color, form, and subject matter, capturing modernity’s fundamental characteristics through painting. Artistic innovations helped display the compression of space and time of technological development, acting as metaphorical devices to express the subjectivity of the individual ‘modern experience’. Despite the contempt for urbanization from some, many artists and intellectuals flocked to cities to experience modernity, further centralizing the city’s position as the heart of the modernist revolution. This explains, as Rechniewski proposes, “the inter-relationship of the great modern cities with the artists as the intermediaries in the translation of the experience of modernity”. The impact of a capitalist lifestyle was portrayed in a new muse of domestic life, capturing the epic in the everyday. It was also the advent of an enhanced female role in art and intellectual spheres, understood as the New Women ideology – seen in Oppenheim’s abstract interpretations of modern domestic living. At the risk of overlapping with the post-modernist movement, the civil rights and women’s movements inspired by post-war sentiments challenged the perception and status quo of minority groups, indicating a more localized agenda to modernism and reflecting the continually evolving concept of modernity and its foundation in protest and revolution, the duality of the individual and the collective.
Modernity’s cultural program of collective identity and individualism can be epitomized in iconic artwork of the era, most notably Munch’s ‘Scream’, both a metaphor for his personal turmoil and society’s uncertain state. The use of color contrast, distortion, and expression depicts the most prominent symptom of modernity: anxiety. Change and stability and juxtaposition of the inner conflict of individualism in a collective consumer culture are represented in the subject’s emotional distress and the mysticism of the painting, reflecting the loss of certainty that correlates to secularization. For this very reason, art was often seen as the physical manifestation of the collective experience in modernity’s reality, as well as the birth of a visual and literary culture of mysticism in the ‘maelstrom of modernism’, centralized art as a medium for the establishment of modernity into popular opinion.
To conclude, the introduction of railway travel, media, and the consequent restructuring of civilization and the lived human experiences of time and lifestyle acted as seminal points for modernity, introducing Darwin, Freud, and Marx’s entirely new socio-cultural constructions that create the foundations for modernity. These theories engendered a new social revolution, signified by what Bullock describes as the ‘artificial demarcation line’ of the turn of the century in the movements of modernism, embodying the double image of conflict between modern society and the individual, addressing the beliefs of Eisenstadt, Freud, Bullock, Marx, and Baron. Although analysis may have risked oversimplification of fields of study and concepts, it was necessary to analyze the such versatile change in one essay.
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