Difference Between West And Modernity

MODERNITY AND WEST: HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE.

Modernity and West are two closely tied terms. We often even use these as synonyms; in place of one or the other. The reason why these two words are so closely related is that modernity is part of the new identity that the West built for itself after having found the Americas. In sociology, the first and foremost clues of modernity are found in Europe, and it has been seen that modernity developed under the banner of Europe all along, therefore, it is utterly important to look into the historical developments that led to the modernization of Europe, essentially—the West. The idea of not only West but a Modern West started with the Europe’s decision to endeavor into undiscovered parts of this
This discourse infused more hatred and stereotypes even though the travellers to newlands started discovering a social structure and uniformity in these societies. There were millions of people living together for centuries, trading and building, even that so, some of these societies produced marvellous engineering wonders. There even came a point where Europeans started trading with these brutes for things but back home in Europe all of the stories were interpreted the same way which described these people as hostile. Because the natives were everything but what they were not was ‚Europeans‘ (Hall,
There came a time when this discourse was influential in shaping some of the important philosophies of enlightenment time period. „It provided the framework in which Enlightenment social philosophy matured“ (Hall, 1992). Before the enlightenment thinkers one question that had been asked often was whether there was more than one way of civilization (Hall, 1992). Thus discourse provided Enlightenment thinkers with the idea that civilization and social development can only be attained from one way. Based on this one way, the discourse facilitated European thinkers to put all the nations on same scale. The Europeans deeming high of themselves, of course, came on top of this self-created scale while the savages of Americas occupied place at the bottom most of this scale. This new model based on the West (Euorpeans) became instrumental in later periods in measuring the progress and development of a society. The West, in this case, remained a standard for all the other nations, to follow upon, if they wanted civilization and progress. The Enlightenment in the social sciences became a medium and paved ways for ‚modern‘ social sciences (Hall, 1992). The definitions provided by the Enlightenment discourse first helped in defining modernity in a new sense by contrast and comparison of a society to the