Three Minutes In the History of Knowledge

Three minutes in the history of thought:

This is a prequel to another post that is coming soon. Here, I simply lay out the terms pre-modernism, modernism, and post-modernism. They are not terms a lot of folks are familiar with and it helps to understand a little of where they came from.

So history is divided into three large sections of thinking and knowledge. There are other ways to break up history but this is the division that makes the most sense to me.

The pre-modern era:

This is all of history leading up to the reformation of the 16^th century. God was seen as the principle center who created us to know him and the world around us; which he also created.

The thinking of man followed a line of reasoning: I believe, in order to understand. I believe in God and he grants me understanding in matters for which I would not have been able to comprehend before.

In other words, truth is revealed to me by God and defined by God in his word.

The enlightenment period (modernism):

This overlapped from the post-reformation 17^th century to the early 20^th century. The time was marked by philosophers and ethicists like Rene’ Descartes and Emmanuel Kant.

The thinking that pervaded the time’s literary and philosophical works contended that all we can know is what is before us right now. So, human reasoning is elevated to the principle center, and God’s revelation is subordinate.

“I think, therefore I am” is the famous conclusion of Descartes which summarizes the period well. This time saw the rise of the scientific method, reliance upon logic and reason, and an increasingly material view of the world.

In other words, all we can know, is what we can see and logically reason. Current research is treated as highest form of knowledge and old research is outdated.

The post-modern era (post-modernism):

Modernism dragged into the 20^th century and was replaced, only in part, by post-modernism. PM is defined more by its system of thought, than a notion that all within the time-period hold to it. It is a steadily rising form of thinking however and has been revealed in everything from liberal universities to religious groups (ironically).

Post-modernism avoids defining absolutes and thus avoids making dogmatic assertions about truth (when it is consistent). It says that reason has led us to a dead end and that truth is entirely dependent upon the community in which it subsists. This is where we get the idea that something can be true for you but not for me, and so forth.

Individualism is eradicated as we are just a creation of our communities. So, if something cannot be discerned by our simple senses then they are just societal constructs.

In other words, there is no absolute truth, only convictions within communities.

In a following post I’ll talk about how this has invaded the church and how anti-intellectualism is a present-day threat to a Christian’s relationship with God.