Modernity is traced back to the Reformation Movement lead by Martin Luther with the publication of the Ninety-Five Theses by Luther in 1517. It is referred to the age marked by questioning or rejection of tradition, religious dogma, orthodox faith and moral values. Reason was the fundamental faculty to be the source of all knowledge and truth. Reformation was, then, followed by Renaissance, Enlightenment, Romanticism, Modern and Post-Modern movements.
Modernity is a paradigm shift in human thinking and human relations. This shift in human thinking and relations produced unprecedented socio-economico-political conditions that have drastically restructured human lives. Fundamentally, modernity is the post-traditional way of being; modernity is the post-Medieval consciousness that has left no human institutions untouched in the Western societies. The complex phenomenon of modernity can be understood through Max Weber’s concept of “disenchantment”, Søren Kierkegaard’s concepts of “passion” and “despair”, Friedrich Nietzsche’s concept of “death of God”, and Karl Marx’s concept of “alienation”.

The fundamental idea/thought of Modernity is: “Man is an autonomous rational being”.

This idea or thought or conception of the world (world-view) is known as Modernity. All the historical evolution of human mind and society is the process of actualization of this idea; Reformation to Post-Modernism, Capitalism, Democracy, Surveillance Modern-State, etc.