Exploring the concept of modernity and the impact of Enlightenment philosophers in shaping the modern world. Discussing the separation of time and space through clocks and maps. Exploring the role of technology in depersonalizing interactions and shaping modern attitudes. Discussing the importance of trust and specialized knowledge in modern life. Exploring the promises of modernity and the potential shift to a post-modern era.
The use of disembedding tools like clocks and maps in modern society has transformed our perception of time and space, leading to a long-term thinking and global planning mindset.
Money, as an abstract and disembedded tool, has shifted our focus from valuing people to filtering relationships through commodities, requiring trust in the system and taking risks.
Deep dives
Disembedding Tools and Synchronization
Disembedding tools such as clocks, maps, and rulers have changed our perception of time and space. They have standardized time and made space communicable, allowing us to synchronize our activities and plan with others. These tools have transformed our modern attitude towards long-term thinking and global planning.
The Role of Money in Modern Life
Money, like clocks and other disembedding tools, has become abstract and disembedded from time and place. It depersonalizes exchanges and requires trust and standardization. Money has shifted our focus from value of people to filtering relationships through commodities. It plays a crucial role in modern society, but it also requires faith in the system and involves taking risks.
The Modernity of Trust and Risk
Modernity requires trusting experts and abstract systems for various aspects of our lives. We rely on professionals and trust in their knowledge and expertise. Modern life is characterized by the disembedding of social systems, which requires trusting individuals and processes that are not always physically present. This trust involves risks and choosing which systems to have faith in. Modernity necessitates constant reflexivity and determining which expert systems to join and trust.
What makes you modern? We know that modernity means technology, industry, cities. But is there a modern attitude? A modern psychology?What sets apart from pre-moderns? Can we even imagine what a traditional attitude might feel like?Traditional life was circular. We were tied to the land day after day, month after month – the idea of improvement, or of relationships with a wider world, were largely non-existent.The philosophers of the Enlightenment – Kant, Marx, Mill, Francis Bacon, and - were motivated by a powerful idea. That we could rationally understand the world, and use the world to shape history. They were all, in varying ways, about ordering the world, putting things in their place, making it predictable, usable. So what makes up this modern attitude? I try to answer this question through Anthony Giddens' 'The Consequences of Modernity'.Then & Now is FAN-FUNDED! Support me on Patreon and pledge as little as $1 per video: http://patreon.com/user?u=3517018