Modernity: Diagnosis and Cure

Modernity is a plastic word, impossible to define in a way to satisfy all. Thus, we will skip that task in this course and focus on the history and current implications of the ideas and institutions that have shaped the world since around the eighteenth century. Some of these ideas and institutions include industrialization and mass society; capitalism and socialism; sovereignty, the modern state, and its powers; disenchantment and secularism; colonization, decolonization, and neocolonialism; democracy and authoritarianism; consumerism and surveillance capitalism; and environmental destruction. No prior study of the subject is necessary. A measure of concern for the order of things as they stand in the world and an interest in improving them is recommended.