Plateaus of Modernity

Modernity could be regarded in terms of a plateau coalescing with the idea of absolute sovereignty as developed by Bodin, and a conception of the individual, concealed, simple, as depicted by Leibniz:(1) a monad, only affected by mechanical inputs from a clearly segregated exterior from the interior. Individuals result as a tear off smaller societies, affording the shaping of society and the unity of power, thus remaining coherent. A conceptualization of power and man both refer to a common mold and configure relations of interaction.

The tendencies of cultural post-modernism and post-industrial socety ought to be superimposed, appertaining to a continuous plain of consistence. Post-industrialism stands for knowledge superseding a ware oriented system of production.(2) To Bell the ‘post-’ prefix encapsulates its transitory aspect. In such an economic system the main role is given to interpersonal relations rather than the industrial link between worker and object. Still, to Bell post-industrial only refers to a social structure rather than any cultural or political transformation; a shift in the relations of production from land (traditional society), to ware (industrial society) to people (post-industrial). In this sense could be grasped Habermas’s stress on communication as a rational means, displacing the philosophies of subjectivity to an interactive arena, privileging understanding as commonality rather than consciousness as an individual, classically industrial, attribute.(3)

(1) For a clarification of Leibniz as a central modern stance and the relation between individuality and subjectivity cf. A. Renaut, L’ère de l’individu. Contribution à une histoire de la subjectivité, Paris, 1989. He states the complementarity of individual wills and an abstract, general, reason, embracing the latter and conforming a plane of construction.

(2) D. Bell, The Coming of the Postindustrial Society. A Venture in Social Forecasting, Harmondsworth, 1973. A. Touraine, La société post industrielle. Naissance d’une société, Paris, 1969.

(3) J. Habermas, Der philosophische Diskurs der Moderne. Zwölf Vorlesungen, Frankfurt, 1985.