The modern era is short and intense in comparison to the long period of time in history which preceded it. The constant and expeditious changes that we experience in our everyday life are a result of various breakthroughs in the system of social organization, in economic and commercial development and in science and philosophy which are first manifested in the Renaissance and the Reformation, are further established in the Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution, currently culminating in the processes of Globalization supported by information technology.
The course examines the series of dramatic changes which began to take place in Europe more than five hundred years ago eventually leading to the consolidation of a modern cultural identity. The main characteristics of modernity as a world-view and as a way of life at large still define the spirit of our time. The course will focus on the causes and processes which brought about the modern turn as a conceptual and cultural phenomenon, disucss constitutive values and principles of action but also dilemmas and contradictions.