Omnivorous Modernity

Abstract

Examines the defining characteristics of culture & morality regarding modernity. In the premodern era, institutions & culturally powerful individuals defined the standards & distinctions of healthy/unhealthy & refined/unrefined culture. However, cultural processing became more ambiguous in the early modern era, & early moderns (in the name of freedom) attempted to eliminate the boundary between healthy & unhealthy culture, while maintaining the distinction between high & low culture. However, it is argued that all distinctions have disappeared in recent decades, & modern culture is defined as omnivorous. Whereas culture was previously depicted as eternal & immortal, modernity defines culture as a collection of subjective, individual, & finite perspectives; modern culture is mortal & historically dependent. However, it is suggested that modern conceptions of morality are grounded in transcendent visions of goodness, & morality is thereby eternal & distinct from history. Therefore, modernity is characterized by the social negotiation of the eternal & finite, or cultural & moral. T. Sevier