The Politics of Time -- Modernity and the Avant-garde

Author: (English) Osborne, translated by Wang Zhihong
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2004-01-01
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 across political, economic, social, and cultural dimensions in the process of modernization. "A stone from a distant hill can be used to polish jade." To help readers broaden their perspectives and better observe and reflect on the issue of modernity in China, the Commercial Press has specially selected and compiled representative works from the vast body of Western research on modernity since the 1980s into the "Translation Series on 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 understanding change through time. He conceptualizes terms such as "modernity," "postmodernity," and "tradition" as categories of historical totality and unique forms of historical temporalization, thereby further raising the essential question of the nature of historical time itself.