Modernity is an unending project (Essay 2017)
(Shamsher Ali Seelro CSS-2008)
Outlines:
Introduction
1. Birth of modernity
a) Bacon and reason
b) Galileo and scientific advancement
c) Lock’s empiricism
d) Newtonian revolution
e) Enlightenment and humanity
2. Manifestation of modernity
a) French Revolution and defeat of old order
b) Declaration of rights of men
c) Expanding boundaries of modernity
3. Decline of modernist project
a) Congress of Vienna and restoration of old order
4. Modernity re-emerges
a) Age of progress and scientific advancements
b) Industrial revolution and new challenges to modernity
c) Marx’s solution to cure ills of modernity
5. War and disillusionment towards modernity
6. Modernity and East
a) Sir Syed’s education project
b) Jinnah’s Constitutional struggle
c) Challenges to modernity in Pakistan
7. Modernity in present era
Conclusion



Modernity is a journey from medieval ignorance to scientific inquiry, from dogma to reason, from orthodoxy to liberalism, from feudalism to capitalism, from autocracy to democracy and from slavery to freedom. It is considered as one of the greatest projects of the history. Philosophically it started from Bacon, Locke and other empiricists’ notion of experience based knowledge and it developed in theories of Rousseau, Voltaire, Montesquieu and French Philosophes, the critics of authority and dogma and preachers of rationality. Modernity was actualized through French Revolution and rolled back after Napoleon’s defeat. But this great project was unstoppable and re-emerged with industrial urbanization and technology. Marx’s philosophy based on scientific socialism was destined to liberate humans from age old slavery based on class exploitation. Modernity faced crisis during two world wars, confidence in man’s rational future was shattered by war frenzy. War torn humanity realized that blessings lie only in peace and democracy. Eastern societies have their own quest for modernity. Freedom from colonials was the first step towards modernity. Countries like Pakistan are still battling with autocracy, feudalism, dogma but process of history will pave more opportunities for modernization in order to survive.

Early thinker of modernity include many philosopher but the first great spokesman for the modernity was the English philosopher and statesman Francis Bacon(1561-1626), who denounced reliance on authority and criticized Aristotelian logic as useless for the discovery of new laws. In the new philosophical climate, experience and reason became the sole standards of truth. Bacon called for a new scientific method based on reasoned generalization from careful observation and experiment. He was the first to formulate rules for this new method of drawing conclusions, now known as inductive inference.

Italian scientist Galileo (1564-1642) was of even greater importance in the development of a new worldview. Galileo’s physics entirely replaced the Aristotelian methods. His works on astronomy and scientific discovery of heliocentric model of universe created great unrest among the followers of orthodoxy. For that purpose he was sent to jail for life, modernity was behind bars but destined to pave its way towards progress.

In 1690 Locke gave empiricism a systematic framework with the publication of his Essay Concerning Human Understanding. Of particular importance was Locke’s redirection of philosophy away from the study of the physical world and toward the study of the human mind. In so doing he made epistemology, the study of the nature of knowledge, the principal concern of philosophy in the 17th and 18th centuries. In his own theory of the mind Locke attempted to reduce all ideas to simple elements of experience, but he distinguished sensation and reflection as sources of experience, sensation providing the material for knowledge of the external world, and reflection the material for knowledge of the mind.

Modernity was an abiding faith in the power of human reason. The age was enormously impressed by the discovery by Isaac Newton of universal gravitation. If humanity could so unlock the laws of the universe, God’s own laws, why could it not also discover the laws underlying all of nature and society? This belief was summed up by Alexander Pope:
“Nature and nature’s laws lay hid in night
God said, ‘Let Newton be,’ and all was light.”
People came to assume that through a judicious use of reason, an unending progress would be possible—progress in knowledge, in technical achievement, in political sphere and even in moral values.

It was the age of Enlightenment in which the project of modernity flourished and found roots in masses. German philosopher Immanuel Kant’s motto “Dare to know” was a desire to re-examine and question all received ideas and values, to explore new ideas in many different directions. Rousseau’s observation “Man is born free, but everywhere he is in chains” paved way for new forms of liberty from autocrats. Voltaire’s slogan “Let us crush the infamous one” was an attack on religious authoritarianism. Many proponents of the Enlightenment liked to refer to themselves as the “party of humanity”. Man occupied central position in project of modernity.

Modernity advanced from theory to practice. French Revolution was the practical manifestation of theories of enlightenment. Completely new, a modern social order replaced the old order by this single event of the history. Political institutions like democracy and nation state were built on the basis of human will instead of aristocratic authority. Feudalism was destroyed, monarch was dethroned, and church was abolished. Victory of equality, fraternity and liberty was considered as victory of reason.

Declaration of rights of the man and citizen was the most important document of modernist ideology. It provided equality to the people; all people were subject to equal laws, equal taxations, and equal rights to vote. All people were to enjoy freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of education. This document became the model for nations struggling to achieve a social order, based on reason and humanity.
With the advent of French Revolution, there emerged new movements. Feminists, like Olympe de Gouges were demanding the equal rights for woman. Slave leaders, like Francois Louverture were struggling for abolition of slavery. Socialists, like Gracchus Babeuf were asking for classless society. Modernity was expanding its boundaries.

After the decline of French Revolution, Napoleon tried to spread modernist ideas of French Revolution to different nations of Europe. He tried to impose new order to his newly captured satellite states but faced resistance. Modernity was a natural demand; freedom being the very basic notion of modernity cannot be imposed. Napoleon’s defeat at Waterloo took the history towards the crisis of modernity. Congress of Vienna restored the old monarchy, orthodoxy and authority. It suppressed all the hopes for leading the world towards a progress and freedom. With the victory of conservatism, modernity faced new dilemma.

Forces who were opposed to the forces of modernity and wanted to reverse the history, did not know that the modernity will re-emerge even with great zeal. Growth of industrial prosperity after first quarter of the 19th Century created new situations for modernity. This scenario is known as “Age of Progress”. With the age of progress there emerged man’s unquestioned faith in growing knowledge of science. Telephone, camera, bulb, diesel engine, x-ray, steel and hundreds of other scientific technologies were the inventions of age of progress. Science was obtaining additional information about nature and society. Emergence of atomic physics, bacteriology, genetics, psychology, anthropology, sociology fostered a faith that through the discovery and application of new forms of knowledge, man could bring the world and himself under his own control and achieve an earthly paradise.

The industrial revolution brought men new freedom, new opportunities and new comforts and conveniences. Age of progress also brought them a new problem: a huge working class without any of the traditional safeguard to economic security. Poverty was nothing new, but poverty in a society capable of producing enormous wealth was difficult to ignore. It was a great riddle of age of progress. The inadequate living standards of great masses mocked the marvelous advances of science and industry. This was a new challenge to the project of modernity.

To cope up with poverty and inequality, and to bring prosperity Karl Marx appeared with his modernist ideas of scientific socialism. Socialism promised a new classless future for humanity based on reason. Marx believed that important thing was not to conceive of ideal system, but o work for dissolution of existing one, which was bad and ought to be destroyed. Out of these ashes would arise a new society, whose contours determined by rational people who had made it. He wrote “Philosopher have hitherto only interpreted the world in various ways, the real point is to change it”.

Again the belief in inevitable progress and modernity was shaken by First and Second World Wars. This disillusionment, caused by horrors of Verdun and Stalingrad, Hiroshima and Nagasaki completely shattered the dreams of humanity. Approximately 10 million people lost their lives and about 21 million people wounded in two wars. Technology was misused for annihilation of humanity. Due to the barbarism of war, people began to feel in pessimist ways that progress did not exist, reason and science did not lead to wisdom and prosperity. Freud’s theory that man is driven by instinct rather than rationally, and unconscious mind plays the pivotal l role instead of conscious mind became popular in the West.

East took its own path for the project of modernity. European captured subcontinent and made it their colony, but colonialism based on racism and exploitation itself could not bring the fruits of progress. British imperialism initiated measures to provide technological infrastructure but the human condition demanded a complete freedom from colonizers in order to bring modernity in true spirit.

Sir Syed Ahmed Khan was the earliest modernist of British India, he truly believed in scientific education. He concluded after war of 1857 that the main cause of defeat in the war was ignorance and orthodoxy of Muslims. Sir Syed found Gulshan School at Moradabad, Victoria School at Ghazipur in 1863, and a scientific society for Muslims in 1864. In 1875, he founded the Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental College, the first Muslim university in South Asia. His struggled for Islam's rational understanding was to make it compatible with science and modernity. His teachings influenced later Muslim leader like Allama Iqbal and Muhammad Ali Jinnah.

It was due to efforts of Sir Syed’s modernist education, that a new educated class emerged and demanded complete constitutional and democratic rights from oppressors. Progress under British exploitation was never possible, in that scenario Jinnah, a staunch democrat and constitutionalist, came up with demand of autonomy and creation of new nation state for progress of Muslims of India. Pakistan came into being in 1947 with the promise of peace and prosperity with the dream of social welfare democracy.

Project of modernity was initiated in Europe, but after mid of the 20th century it had been spread all over the world with independence from colonizers and advancement in modern education and scientific knowledge. In third world the project could not prosper in its full spirit. Pakistan could not get rid of feudalism and tribalism. Dictators frequently derailed the process of democracy. Science and technology could not develop like European nations. Terrorism hit the country worst. Poverty, inequality, discrimination could not be eradicated completely. Among all these challenges countries like Pakistan are struggling to fulfill the dream of becoming a modern nation.

After two World Wars and Cold War, world realized that future of humanity lies in peace and democracy, reason and rationality and in knowledge and education. With the advances in communication, transportation, and information technologies a new global society emerged and the project of modernity reached to new heights. Digital technologies, internet, social media and a flood of information changed the shape of nation states all over the world. New theories in social sciences, natural sciences opened new horizon of knowledge. Third world countries are lacking behind first world nations but with the passage of time they will also enjoy the fruits of modernization.

It has now established that reason cannot be replaced by dogma. Knowledge cannot be subtracted. Scientific advancement can never come to stand still. Future lies with institutions which support humanity. Ills of democracy can only be cured by more democracy. Modernity has survived throughout the history; it will also thrive in future. Modernity is a process which cannot be stopped.
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Do you teach some where, any academy?




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Yes, I teach to individuals in Karachi

Brother you did not address what was asked.Modernity is an unending project is basically a rebuttal of the postmodernist philosophy.You were supposed to build your individual arguments accordingly.For example,one argument in favour of the proposition would be that mankind has been too used to fruits of modernity to return to pre-modern age.For example,noone today can even think of living without electricity,without modern means of transport,and without communication systems like internet and social media.Your essay is rich in words but poor in relevance.

You have complicated a rather simple and direct essay.There was less need to mix it with philosophy.

Sir, I think you are preoccupied with a specific interpretation of concept of "Modernity" which you want to be adressed.Several writter have written on discourse of Modernity at lenght but defination vary from scholar to scholar.I dont find any specific defition of Modernity either it is Jorgen Habermass or Indian Scholar Partha Chatterjee.

Every topic of the essay contais some implied questions which are must be adressed. Here the questions are What is Modernity? How it is an undending project? Firstly i have interpreted Modernity as a process which is unending. Secondly i have tried to adress implicity and explicity that what are the main features of Modernity, i.e rationality, humanism, democracy, sceintific advancement etc..There are various patterns of arranging your arguments such, chronological, category wise, compare and contrast, cause-effect-remedy and few other. However my essay is chronological in pattern so i have chose to write it from past to present, from the birth of Modernity to current development. If you have any issue with my interpretation of Modernity than we can discuss it. you have every right to disagree.

Perhaps,there is more than a single objective interpretation of modernity.However,there is a consensus among scholars that modernity is the rejection of traditionality.Modernity is basically a practical manifestation of modernism which means if we employ reason and science instead of religion to solve human problems,the world will be a better place to live.For example,Democracy instead of monarchy,individuality istead of collectivity,and so on.
In the medieval age,the clergy had made people believe that the road to salvation was religion,but this concept failed as mankind was regressing into dogma,superstition,and ignorance.So,the philosophers concluded that since religion could not solve human problems,it must end.With its end started modernity.However,it has not salvaged humankind either,leading many to think that it is gradually being replaced by postmodern thought similarly as modernism superseded medievalism.
The examiner now believes that this belief is untrue and modernity will not be a history.We have to build our argument accordingly.I think there is no need to delve into what is modernity,how it started,etc etc.We just have to prove that the phase of modernity will not meet the same fate as other ages in human intellectual history.

Sir, Can you please message me your contact number ?

Can someone answer my question.

Why are there so many fancy words in the essay?
They are too difficult to read and I think here the purpose of using these words is to impress the reader not the examiner. These words confuse the aspirant and raise the difficulty level of the exam in the aspirant's mind.
The other thing I want to ask is that is this essay related to philosophy only?
What I am taking it as science essay because i cant think of it as something else as I have a science background. I can only think modernity in terms of inventions like wheel, like plane, weapons, civilizations like harrapa and mohenjodaro, nuclear and chemical weapons, modernity of cloths since the beginning of time, computers and internet, way of trading, offline business to online business like ecommerce, etc.

Are they enough?

The essay I read above was not written in the exam room but by research and then compiling all the data and information produced this essay. The essay written in the exam room will not be the same as in the lab.

outline
1.Introduction
The human history is replete with inventions which become obsolete with passage of time and replaced by new ones times and again, in short called modernity, hence it is an unending process.(thesis statement)
2.modernity in field of
a. politics and governing methods
i) Democracy as most coveted form of governement
ii) Development of laws for betterment of humanity
iii) United Nations and international law's synergy
b. social norms and evolution of modern societies
i) improvement in way of living
ii) better transportation methods
iii) improved communication techniques
iv) diagnosis and treatment of chronic diseases
v) educational advancements and sophisticated mediums of education
vi) housing schemes and developed life style
so on....
seniors please evaluate am i in right direction?. if so ... i complete it