Enlightenment and Modernity Dr Claudia Stein

Piece of Westphalia, 1648 The ‘Westphalian principle’ as it is sometimes called, underlies the modern international system of sovereign states.

What do we mean by ‘modernity’ here? it is both a historical period (e.g. the modern era) as well as the ensemble of particular socio-cultural beliefs, norms, attitudes and practices that arose in the wake of ‘Renaissance’ (14th -- 16th century), particularly during the ‘Age of Reason’ and ‘Enlightenment’ of the 17th and 18th century. It is still debated when modernity happened or what it exactly is. While discussed originally in relation to the West, today ‘modernity’ is discussed as a global issue. Did, for example, China go through ‘modernity’?   In historiography, the 17th to 18th century are usually described as ‘early modern’ – so the time when certain ‘modern’ characteristics in societies developed -- while the long 19th century corresponds to ‘modern history’ proper.

Characteristics generally attributed to ‘modernity”   secularization of society the prioritization of individualism and political freedom and equality development of nation-state, urbanization, representative democracy and public education faith in inevitable social, scientific and technological progress, rationalization and professionalization a movement feudalism to capitalism and market economy on a global scale industrialization and urbanization

The ‘Age of Reason’ and ‘Enlightenment’ a period in Western history from the 1650s to the 1780s. It is a period in which Western European culture began to emphasized reason and empirically-based analysis in the investigation of individual man, society and nature rather then following traditional lines of authority (e.g. Church, ancient authorities).

What is Enlightenment? Immanuel Kant, 1724-1804

The most famous definition of ‘Enlightenment’ ‘Enlightenment (Aufklärung) is mankind’s exit from self-incurred immaturity. Immaturity is the inability to make use of one’s own understanding without the guidance of another. Self-incurred is the inability if its cause lies not in the lack of understanding but rather in the lack of the resolution and the courage to use it without the guidance of another. Sapere aude! Have the courage to use your own understanding! It is thus the motto of the enlightenment.’   (From: Immanuel Kant, ‘An Answer to the Question: What is Enlightenment?’ Berlinerische Monatsschrift (1784): 481-494, 481.)

The Enlightenment is a project and a process which is ongoing according to Kant: ‘It is now asked “whether we live at present in an enlightened age?”, the answer is: “No, but we do live in an age of enlightenment.” As matters stand now, much is still lacking for men to be completely able – or even to be placed in a situation where they would be able – to use their own reason confidently and properly in religious matters without the guidance of another. Yet we have clear indications that the field is now being opened from them to work freely towards this , and the obstacles to general enlightenment or to the exit out of their self-incurred immaturity become even fewer.’ In: Immanuel Kant, ‘An Answer to the Question: What is Enlightenment?’ Berlinerische Monatsschrift (1784): 481-494, 481

Where are these new ideas discussed? The emergence of a Republic of Letters: a long-distance intellectual community in the late 17th and 18th centuries in Europe and America that stretched across national boundaries which fostered communication among the intellectuals of the Age of Enlightenment. The Republic of Letters emerged in the 17th century as a self-proclaimed community of scholars and literary figures that stretched across national boundaries but respected differences in language and culture.

The development of a public sphere Def. public sphere: is an area in social life where individuals can come together to freely discuss and identify societal problems, and through that discussion influence political action Jürgen Habermas, The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere – An Inquiry into a Category of Bourgeois Society (germ. 1968; engl. 1989) ‘The bourgeois public sphere may be conceived above all as the sphere of private people come together as a public; they soon claimed the public sphere regulated from above against the public authorities themselves, to engage them in a debate over the general rules governing relations in the basically privatized but publicly relevant sphere of commodity exchange and social labor.’ Characteristics of public sphere according to Habermas: Disregard of status: Domain of common concern Inclusivity

New Public spheres the salon in France

‘Tischgesellschaft’ in Germany Frederic the Great of Prussia and the French philosopher Voltaire at Potsdam

coffee houses in Britain

Enlightement thinkers aimed to understand what ‘man’ really was and how mankind was to live together happily in a society: ‘The Science of Man’ Since the latter part of the seventeenth century, European thinker began to believe that in order to understand the true history and destiny of the human race, one could no longer blindly rely on the authority of the Greek and Roman thinkers (the Ancients) or on the Bible. Man’s nature – so they began to believe—was not yet properly known; it must become the subject of inquiry. Note: ‘science’ is not understood as ‘natural science’ – as we do today. The Enlightenment understood in a much broader sense as a general ‘inquiry following a rational method’. So, ‘history writing’ or ‘theology’ could be part of this ‘science of man’ – if undertaken by a rationally reasoning mind, of course!

Central here is the Scottish moral philosopher David Hume who applies Newton’s experimental method to human nature His project: ‘the empirical observation of human activities in the present and past.’ A Treatise of Human Nature: Being an Attempt to introduce the experimental Method of Reasoning into Moral Subjects. (1739–40) An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (1748) David Hume 1711-1767