The Politics of Time: Modernity and the Avant-garde

Author: [UK] Osborne
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-11-01
Features: Modernity is the overall characteristic of the historical process of modernization in human society, and it is the focal point of contradictions and conflicts in politics, economy, society, and culture during the modernization process. "A stone from a distant mountain can be used to polish jade." To help readers broaden their perspectives and better observe and reflect on the issue of modernity in China, Commercial Press has specially selected representative works since the 1980s from the vast body of research on Western modernity to compile the "Translation Series of Modernity Studies." This book is regarded as an important work in the current debates on modernity and postmodernity concerning the philosophy of time. The author reverses the traditional Aristotelian approach of understanding time through change, instead turning the tables by understanding change through time. He conceptualizes "modernity," "postmodernity," and "tradition" as categories of historical totality and unique forms of historical temporalization, thereby raising the essential question of the nature of historical time itself.