Modern Values: Redefining Modernity In A Historical Context

The greatest historiographical fallacy is the notion that industrialization is at the root of modernity. To truly explore modernity as a concept, and what caused it, it is important to recognize both the denotation of the word and its meaning within a historical context. Oxford Languages defined the word “modern” as “relating to the present or recent times as opposed to the remote past.” The job of historians in investigating this concept is to try to separate what is “recent” from this “remote past.” Historians have moved past defining modernity along the lines of a date, but not much farther. The consensus amongst the historical community is that the primary criterion for modernity is industrialization. However, the History I curriculum of the Riverdale Country School actively and accurately points to this notion as being grossly fallacious. Empirically by examining 13th-century Medieval Europe, the 18th-century Age of Enlightenment, and the 14th-century Islamic World, it can be derived that aspects of modern society pervade these pre-industrial revolution examples. Industrialization as a theory of modernity is flawed because industrialization is not the root of modernity but a symptom of it, and, to extend, a symptom of the emergence of three values that paved the way for the modern era: commercial enterprise, reason, and transnationalism.

The first of these values was the pursuit of profit and the development of commercial enterprise. In Europe, as early as the 13th century, “fairs” were established as international trading events that exhibited and further perpetuated a new profit-oriented mindset amongst the people. Friar Humbert of Romans indirectly pointed to the development of this attitude in his writing: “‘Frequently you will hear men swearing [at fairs]: “By God I will not give you so much for it,” or “By God I will not take a smaller price,” or “By God it is not worth so much as that.”’” At this time more than ever before, there was a change in the mindset, as vendors actively pursued profits and consumers sought deals. During this commercial revolution, the rise of the merchant class within European society took place, and going to the markets to buy and sell goods became an everyday part of people’s lives. Humbert of Romans furthered that “men miss thereby the divine office and the sermon and even disobey the precept of hearing Mass, and attend these [markets] against the Church's commands.” That people were readily missing religious functions and ignoring the perceived will of God to further their economic returns speaks directly to this novel value of private enterprise and profit. The emergence of this hallmark of modern society ultimately laid the foundation for mercantile capitalism, which in turn evolved into a full-fledged, modern capitalist world system.

The second of these values to appear was the emphasis on rationality and logic. Professor of history, Robert Tignor, described the 18th century Enlightenment most critically as the age of reason where people began to think through things for themselves. Logic as an inherently human capability was so deeply embedded within Enlightenment ideology that John Locke wrote in his Two Treatises Of Government that “The state of nature has a law of nature to govern it, and reason, which is that law, teaches all mankind [that]…no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty, or possessions.” This most famous notion, that the United States Declaration of Independence is based on, is steeped in the principles of reason and rationale. Locke argued that there is a law of human nature that morally outlaws the violation of certain rights and that law is the law of reason. The emergence of logic as a uniquely and universally human attribute was critical in the development of modern science and philosophy, and while this isn’t to say that humans were not logical before the Enlightenment, rationalism as a theory of knowledge has defined the way people think for the last 300 years. It is also significant to mention that rationality didn’t just pave the way for the modern scientific sphere, but also transformed the way people live their everyday lives. In the context of modernity, however, the “New Science” involved the systemized search for knowledge and, in the grand scheme of history, this intellectual revolution is responsible for the way science not only pervades but is at the center of civilization today. The ongoing quest for knowledge is a feature of modern civilization that is rooted in the Enlightenment and rationalism.

Finally, international connection and the expansion of markets have become a crucial element of modern society but also a sign of modernity in what is historically thought of as “pre-modern” cultures. While the other two values can be pointed to as emerging tangibly during a specific period, it is particularly difficult to place this third one chronologically as historical evidence points to transregional trade as early as 3,000 BCE. More pertinent to the History I curriculum is the example of transcontinental commerce in the 14th century, connecting Africa to Asia in an expansive Islamic world system. Prominent Africanist David Conrad wrote of the significant trading networks that connected continents through commerce. The author of the renowned 1375 Catalan Atlas, Abraham Cresques, also remarked on the significance of trade and global connection which was pointed to in his description of Damascus: “Let it be known that many spices, as well as other noble products, come to this city…and are distributed.” In the Catalan Atlas, Cresque reified the concept of transregional trade in a particular city, but the expansion of markets and the development of an interconnected world system was certainly a crucial pillar of modernity. Fast-forwarding 600 years to North America, evidence of an international interconnectedness as the root of a few critical advents of the “modern era” exists. Geographer Noel Castree wrote about the 1990s in the context of a transnational global shift that helped frame modern society. The Mexican Zapatista rebel group voiced their discomfort with the desire of capitalists for “the entire world to be made into a big business where merchandise is produced like a great market. A world market for buying and selling.” Homogenization and the expansion of markets nonetheless persisted, as causes of modernity rather than symptoms. Key elements of modern society such as global markets for goods as well as talent; the mobility of capital and technology; and the large-scale matching of supply and demand are all results of transnationalism.

It was ultimately these three values that defined the “modern era” in history. The pursuit of profit led to a commercial revolution in Medieval Europe, and the value of reason was the cause of the Enlightenment’s intellectual revolution. In terms of transnationalism, civilizations have been connecting and branching out for 5,000 years but the greatest strides toward a modern interconnectedness can be seen in the Islamic world of the 14th century and North America in the 20th. These different revolutions were all caused by ideological revolutions that took place, where new principles and values emerged that still exist today. These three values, when examined together, are the pillars on which our modern society stands. In terms of a few notes, it is important to recognize first, that this list of modernizing values is without doubt non-exhaustive, and second, that it is more than likely that other civilizations initially developed these values. As a historian, I can only work with the evidence that is in front of me and in this case the standard History I evidence directly points to the civilizations I mentioned as places where these values were prevalent, not necessarily where they originated, however. Societies that demonstrate the presence of these three values can be defined as truly modern. However, to consider the gray area between modern and pre-modern, traditional history argues that there is none, a civilization existed either before or after a date or was either industrialized or not. However, if this notion of the three core values holds any truth, then a society can be modern in terms of one of these values, and civilizations with elements of modernity are truly in a gray area. Civilizations with elements of modernity are civilizations where these values are in various developing stages and should be recognized as such, straddling the middle ground between the “remote past” and what we consider to be modern time. This concept of modernizing values is incomplete and can be further developed. But to air one particular question I have as the writer, where did these emerging values come from? Are they just fundamental values to human nature and if so, why, and what took them so long?

Bibliography

Castree, Noel, et al., “Globalization,” A Dictionary of Human Geography, 2013.

Cave, Roy C. and Herbert H. Coulson, A Source Book for Medieval Economic History, Milwaukee: The Bruce Publishing Co., 1936; reprint ed., New York: Biblo & Tannen, 1965.

Conrad, David C., “Early Polities of the Western Sudan,” in The Cambridge World History, Vol. 5.

Cresques, Abraham, The Catalan Atlas, 1375.

Le Goff, Jacques. Money and the Middle Ages. Malden, MA: Polity Press, 2012.

Locke, John, “Of Civil Government,” from Two Treatises of Government, 1690.

Rosenwein, Barbara H. A Short History of the Middle Ages, Fourth Edition. University of Toronto Press, Higher Education Division. Kindle Edition.

Tignor, Robert, et al. “The Enlightenment in Europe”; “The New Science” and “Enlightened Thought and Its Spread” in Worlds Together, Worlds Apart, 5th edition, vol. C (2018) Ebook.

Zapatista Army of National Liberation, Excerpts from the Clandestine Revolutionary Indigenous Committee – General Command of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation, “Sixth Declaration of the Selva Lacandona,” June, 2005. *Originally published in Spanish by the Zapatista Army of National Liberation, translated by “irlandesa.”