Welcome to The Modern Frame, a website dedicated to exploring the uniqueness of the modern world, or what may be considered by some the post-modern world.1
It is almost by definition hard to comprehend the historical uniqueness of the age we live in. After all, we inhabit it, we exist within–inside it–so to speak. Our being inhabitants of a world2 makes it difficult to escape, to view it from a fresh angle; to see from a more realistic viewpoint.
Every human being grows up in a world that is characterized by sets of norms and circumstances that are taken for granted. Whether social, economic, ethical, political, religious, et al., most of us are not reflective about this; the norms of our lives exist in the background, and though we may be unaware of them, they are there all the same. They are presupposed by our thoughts and actions; by the way we live.
But the world we live in–the modern world–is unique.3 It presses upon us certain presuppositions, paradigms, and ways of thinking about our world and ourselves that are often very different from those times and ages which predate it. And whether we realize it or not, these ideas have largely created the circumstances of our lives. Many–if not most–of us do not recognize this, and we fail to realize the immense gulf that exists between the modern contemporary world and that of the past. Or, if we are aware, tend to see the difference through the lens of progress, seeing ourselves as the tip of the spear of human development or evolution, yet not realizing that this view is itself a product of the world and times we inhabit.
The totality of ways of thinking about the world and ourselves that is presupposed and taken for granted by the majority of us today is what I call “the modern frame”. Taken together these ways of thinking form a viewpoint of human understanding that is unprecedented in history. This website is about investigating them, what they are, how they may have developed, and how they affect us. It is an attempt to better understand our situation. The Modern Frame is not meant to be a tirade against modernity per se, nor is it intended to be an uncritical proponent thereof. Instead, this project seeks to assess, investigate, articulate, and sometimes evaluate, the modern contemporary world, seeking its goods and benefits but at the same time criticizing its failures and created problems. This will largely take the form of essays, which can be accessed in the Essays section of the website.
The majority of the essays published on The Modern Frame will be written by me. There will no doubt be guest writers and colleagues who share sentiments like my own, in which case I may be called upon to serve as an editor. But the overall goal remains the same: to help the thoughtful reader understand the modern world, and to provide a resource for those seeking to further the discussion with others. If you are new to this site, a good place to start is A General Overview.
This project has been initiated as the result of an ongoing inquiry into the nature of our situation in the contemporary West, especially America. It is “ongoing” in the sense that it is not final but continuous, therefore subject to potential revision, and the analysis and perspective afforded by continued discussion, research, and reflection. It is a project in which I am largely drawing upon sources more knowledgeable and intelligent than myself, and as such, I am indebted to those who may take the time to correct my errors.
Notes:
1. In general, I will refer to both the dawn of modernity and the contemporary world of the present, as more or less the same thing: the modern world. Though significant differences exist between the 16th century and the world of today, in many ways the development of the latter can be deduced from the ideas and circumstances of the former. The “post-modern” world I do not see as a significant departure from the merely “modern”. The reason I think this is, again, because as I see it the significant ideas of post-modernity stem largely from those of modernity itself. For the most part, however, the focus of this website will be on the modern contemporary world of today.
2. By “world” I mean the totality of circumstances during a given time period at a given place. In Italy, for instance, the “ancient world” and the “medieval world” had differing characteristics, and are thus on this viewpoint conceived as different “worlds”. Today, the earth has become smaller in the sense that much of the globe is connected politically, economically, and technologically. Though today marked differences exist between America, Europe and Asia (among others), when I speak of “the modern world” I am almost exclusively referring to the contemporary West or specifically Western ideas which have spread to other places. China remains a communist country to this day, though communism is a Western idea.
3. I do not mean to suggest that there have not been unique aspects of the pre-modern world in the West or in the East. The fall of Rome was a momentous event in the history of Western Civilization. But the changes that took place at the dawn of modernity make it pale in comparison. The ancient and medieval words were far more similar than either happen to be in relation to the modern world. What I refer to by the “uniqueness” of the modern world is the unprecedented nature of the changes that occurred in the West beginning in the 16th century, as well as their revolutionary character. The unprecedented growth of trade and population, the rise of individualism, the Protestant Reformation, the seeds of the Scientific Revolution, the Enlightenment, and so on.