《现代性及其不满》读后感精选(11) modernity|modern|debate|book|M

4.Conclusion
Steven B. Smith examines the concept of modernity by presenting the thoughts of great minds. He adopts the method of detailed analysis of text, a Straussian way of doing the history of political thought, to conduct his research. As a result of his research method, modernity under his evaluation is more a state of mind than a historical product. He succeeds in presenting distinctive characteristics of modernity including self-determination and progress. He also provides a clear-cut image of important critics and opponents against modernity. But his story is with shortcomings. This book is not so successful in reinitiating the old debate of two sides, and the analysis of each character are isolated to each other. As a result, the trajectory of development of modernity and the rising of its anti-rhetoric is not so clear. If we conceive this work as an attempt of depicting the opinions regarding modernity, it is a great book. But if we want to see how modernity developed through a historical process, the arrangement and the method of this book may not be suitable. This kind of story would be possible by adopting the method of Cambridge school. By putting more weight on the historical context of modernity and its transition, we would trace the development of modernity more easily.
[1] Smith, Steven B. Modernity and Its Discontents: Making and Unmaking the Bourgeois from Machiavelli to Bellow. Yale University Press, 2016. Preface X.
[2] Ibid, Page 113.
[3] Ibid, Page 6.