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Modernity comes in as many versions as there are thinkers or journalists, yet all its definitions point, in one way or another, to the passage of time. The adjective modern designates a new regime, an acceleration, a rupture, a revolution in time. Modern is thus doubly asymmetrical: it designates a break in the regular passage of time, and it designates a combat in which there are victors and vanquished.
Apart from classification as the historical period, modernity also represents a complex of the specific socio-cultural norms and methods throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. According to Latour, modernity is a versatile notion; hence, it can be defined in as many ways as there are thinkers or journalists (p. 10). However, despite its variety, the fundamental concept of modernity is always linked to the passage of time. By originating from the term modern , it is generally regarded as the occurrence of something new, such as the enhancement and divide of the renewed social system.
In the view of modernity as the historical concept, it has the revolutionary undertone in the concept of time. Latour also suggests that modern is doubly asymmetrical (p. 10). With that said, one may identify modernity as the time divide in the formation of new societal policies. On the other hand, the new changes in this world are always emerging in the controversy of ancients and moderns, the constant battle with its winners and losers. Therefore, the contemporaries are unwilling to operate with the term of modern due to the lack of confidence to sustain the modernitys asymmetrical basis, as we are inherently linked to the times irreversibility.
We have to rethink the definition of modernity, interpret the symptom of postmodernity, and understand why we are no longer committed heart and soul to the double tasks of domination and emancipation. To make a place for the networks of sciences and technologies, do we really have to move heavens and earth? Yes, exactly, The Heavens and the Earth.
Following ideas of Latour, it seems that it is time now to reconsider the notion of modernity (p. 10). In the human progress, modernity acquires a new branch of postmodernity in established sociological positions, which, as described by Giddens, is associated with the end of history and the end of foundationalism (p. 124). It is critical to understand why humans are no more dedicated to the double function of domination and emancipation that establishes our relations and questions if we have ever been modern.
With the rapid growth of modern society, new networks of sciences and technologies emerge. However, does it really worth to toil in order to succeed in the technological revolution? Latours perception of modern implies its effectiveness in creating new, the hybrids of nature and culture , suggesting two practices of translation and purification (p. 11). As a result, by considering those practices in a separate way, one can genuinely aim at being modern.
The hypothesis of this essay is that the word modern designates two sets of entirely different practices which must remain distinct if they are to remain effective, but have recently begun to be confused. The first set of practices, by translation , creates mixtures between entirely new types of beings, hybrids of nature and culture. The second, by purification , creates two entirely distinct ontological zones: that of human beings on the one hand; that of nonhumans on the other. Without the first set, the practices of purification would be fruitless or pointless. Without the second, the work of translation would be slowed down, limited or even ruled out. The first set corresponds to what I have called networks; the second to what I shall call the modern critical stance.
With that said, by analyzing different versions of modernity, it can be acknowledged when society is involved in two practices of translation and purification that should be considered separately. Translation or hybridization is responsible for efforts to reconcile the elements of nature and culture in hybrids networks (Latour, p. 11). Purification, on the other hand, implies the differentiation between nature and human culture. Nature means the idea of something that already exists, while the human culture is the man-made substance.
Modernists belief requires nature to be objectively comprehensible and not inflicted by humans, while human culture is always invented and never under the impact of nature. Bearing this in mind, to be modern can be achieved only if one can divide nature and human culture, and can subordinate the former scientific analysis to the rational one. However, Latour strongly debates that, with todays scientific and technological advancement, modern society fails to separate those two phenomenal problems (p. 11). Nature and culture both continue to function with the inextricable connection in the same way, as it was in the preceding era. Latours alternative encounter of the reality is named the middle kingdom that consists of both nature and culture with its objects and nonobjective concepts. Therefore, in order to enter this world, it is essential to admit that nature and culture can never be held separately. Besides, the modern project is to the same extent dependent on two practices of translation and purification.
Works Cited
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Giddens, Anthony. The Consequences of Modernity. Wiley, 2013, p. 124.
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Latour, Bruno. We Have Never Been Modern. Harvard University Press, 1993, pp. 10-12.
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