Author(s): Mehmet Devrim TOPSES, Berkay COÅKUN
Throughout the history, the class conflicts have included not only the economic forms of relationship, but also the philosophies of history and society. The historical and social philosophies are shaped primarily within the context of the class conflicts in the social structure from which they emerged. As a philosophy of life of the bourgeois class, modernity refers to a process of change that involves the institutionalized forms of relationship in the social structure after the 18th century. Enlightenment thought constitutes the philosophical content of the phenomenon “modernity”. Today, the criticisms directed towards the modernity and enlightenment philosophy are nurtured mainly from three class-based sources. First, the old feudal classes that lost their social status with the advent of French and Industrial Revolutions challenged the phenomenon of modernity. The feudalism and religious aristocracy criticized the understanding of method of Enlightenment that emphasizes the human reason and factualism. Second, some postmodern criticisms have been directed towards the modernity simultaneously with the process of neoliberalism and globalization after the second half of the 20th century. Postmodernism not only directs a devastating criticism towards rationality and factualism, but also rejects the theoretical approaches such as socialism which stipulates the power of the working class. Finally, the Frankfurt School has some criticisms towards Enlightenment and modernity. Although undergone theoretical changes in the process, the Frankfurt School is a school of philosophy and sociology founded by the Marxist theorists at the beginning of the 20th century that directs radical and farreaching criticism towards the Western civilization and bourgeois society. The purpose of this study was to compare the contemporary criticisms directed towards modernity and Enlightenment in terms of class.
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