What is Modernity?

This article interrogates the meaning and trajectory of modernity as a world- historical transformation. Originating in the Enlightenment and propelled by revolutions in science, technology, and political order, modernity has been conceived as a permanent revolution shaping human capacities, institutions, and global interdependence. Liberal modernity in particular rests on assumptions of humanism, rationality, autonomy, science, and institutional design. Yet its promises of progress are increasingly contested in an era of democratic backsliding, geopolitical rivalry, and environmental crisis. The paper examines the “discovery” of modernity, the global impact of modernization, and the rival visions that have emerged— from progressive narratives of liberal democracy to more modest, contingent, or pluralist accounts. Ultimately, it argues that the viability of liberal modernity depends on recovering optimism about the future as a site for cooperation and institutional innovation. Modernity’s future lies not in inevitable progress but in the capacity of societies to sustain belief in improvement, to rebuild institutions that generate predictability, and to exercise reasoned agency in shaping a shared global condition.