The Malaise of Modernity

Chapter 1 provides a brief description of the social order of Modernity and a prima facie case in its defence. However, the chapter is devoted primarily to an account of the challenges Modernity faces. These challenges can be grouped into two distinct types. There are external challenges brought by those who do not share Modernity’s core commitments to the sciences, market economics, democracy and the rule of law. These are to be distinguished from what I take to be the far more serious internal challenges. The latter are brought by those sympathetic to Modernity’s core commitments but who are doubtful that they can all be respected simultaneously. These challenges set the agenda for the rest of the work.