Off-topic: Modern-Post-Modern Age

[Barrie J. Wright]

SNIP
The reason for the term "Middle Ages" is that they fall between the
ancient or classical times and modern times.

The big question now is when did "Modern Times" end? One could argue
for, say, 1769, when James Watt patented his steam engine that
symbolized the beginning of the industrial revolution, or 1776, when the
American Revolution began a world-wide political sea change that has
been just as profound. Or one could argue for 1946, when ENIAC became
the first functioning digital computer, an invention every bit as
revolutionary as Watt's steam engine.

Unfortunately, this argument won't be settled in our lifetimes.
JSG

Yes, James Watt would be a good date to begin Modern Era II.
Interesting to try to decide whether an Age should be determined by its
artefacts
like metal weapons or machines, or by the thought and philosophy that imbued
it.

Speaking of Europe, one could 'end' the Middle Ages at 1453 when the
classical
works of Constantinople started to come West rapidly, though the effects
were not instant, or 1517 with Luther's Reformation, a major source of
revolution in thought,
or about 1600 when Shakespeare [a Renaissance figure par excellence] was
appreciated, and The New World beckoned, science was emerging etc..

Applying that to now, what animates those that speak of Post-Modernism is
really
a Retreat from the rationality, objectivity and progressivism that
characterized the Moderns. But a retreat to where?
As usual, it was the visual artists who foreshadowed this change -- all the
avant-gardists since the 1900s, followed by the Freudians, the
Existentialists and Absurdists [like Sartre] from mid-century, Andy Warhol
and so on.
[Warhol has been listed in Australia as the third greatest artist of the
century. Help!]

The irony would be to include the ENIAC of 1946 as a symbol of the End of
the Modern, when it is the epitome of Logic-in-Action, now powered by the
transistor and the chip.
Compare The Bomb and the Kinsey Reports of the 1950s. Science vs the Pseudo
.
Rationality [Science] is really being turbo-charged, but are we able to USE
it all with our
Western ennui?
Will Science or Unreason win? Or neither.
In a world where the irrationalities of Freud and Marx are fading, it would
be tragic to think that we can look forward only to solipsistic
'Post-Modernism'.
Most of the world isn't even Modern yet, so let's get global first.

I refrain from trying to guess the future Age, except that it will be much
more complex.

Barrie Wright, in Adelaide, South Australia

[David Mowbray]

In article <032b01bef479$596ba6c0$71ee38cb@n4t1t8>, Barrie J. Wright
<bjwr...@senet.com.au> writes
<snip>

>Speaking of Europe, one could 'end' the Middle Ages at 1453 when the
>classical
>works of Constantinople started to come West rapidly, though the effects
>were not instant, or 1517 with Luther's Reformation, a major source of
>revolution in thought,
>or about 1600 when Shakespeare [a Renaissance figure par excellence] was
>appreciated, and The New World beckoned, science was emerging etc..

Or perhaps with the invention of the printing press, which underpinned
much of the subsequent development ??
David
--
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[D. Spencer Hines]

When does the Medieval Period end in the view of British Oxford and
Cambridge Medieval Historians of today?

D. Spencer Hines

Lux et Veritas
--

D. Spencer Hines --- "Sherlock Holmes took his bottle [of
seven-percent solution of cocaine diluted in water] from the corner of
the mantelpiece, and his hypodermic syringe from its neat morocco
case. With his long, white nervous fingers he adjusted the delicate
needle, and rolled back his left shirtcuff. For some little time his
eyes rested thoughtfully upon the sinewy forearm and wrist, all dotted
and scarred with innumerable puncture marks. Finally he thrust the
sharp point home, pressed down the tiny piston, and sank back into the
velvet-lined armchair with a long sigh of satisfaction." _The Sign of
the Four_ (1889) Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle [1859-1930]