The birth of modernity opened a new history of the intellectual world. The term ‘modern’ comes from the Latin ‘moderna’ which means ‘now’, ‘new’ or ‘at this time’. On the basis of this understanding, we can always say that we live in the ‘modern’ era. Historians believe that the end of modern times in Europe, intellectually, is the 16th century. And since then the 16th century is considered the birth of the modern era.
Swiss historian Jacob Burckhardt in his famous work ‘Die Cultur der Renaisance in Italy’ (1859), describes how the transition from medieval to ‘modern’ times in Europe. According to him, medieval society knew more about himself as a race, people, tribe, family, and so on, which could be interpreted as knowing himself collectively. The modernization that began in Italy is known as the renaissance, changing human consciousness from the collective to the individual. The influence of the renaissance then spread to mainland Europe. In England this event is called enlightenment, in France it is synonymous with the French revolution, and in Germany it is called Aufklarung. All contained in one word, “enlightenment”.
In Philosophy, we recognize the term Rene Descartes, Cogito Ergo Sum, which is translated ‘I think so I exist’. That sentence is a solid formulation of the modern era which has been preserved even today. Descartes’ statement emphasizes that man can know reality through his own ratio. Marx, who was inspired by Hegel, in the 19th century emphasized that man is a historical subject. Humans are not being played with by time, but by the designer of their own history. So far the birth of modernity has been greeted by its main characteristic, namely subjectivity. The German philosopher Immanuel Kant said that the faculty of reason makes humans free from traditional prejudices, through his well-known term, Kant declared ‘awakening from dogmatic sleep’.
As a “period” of age, the birth of modernity which is identical to the presence of human consciousness as described above appeared in the 16th century and peaked in the 18th century. With this periodization we are quite easy to find the difference between the 16th century onwards, and the previous centuries. That clear distinction is not based on a brief consensus among scientists, but the result of a long debate. It is not surprising and should be underlined that this agreement was only reached by historians in the 19th century. It should be emphasized that before entering the modern century, historians called it the middle ages.
