Epistemology II - Modernism

Western modernism is grounded in a distinctive mix of rationalism and empiricism that we see most clearly in the scientific method’s knowledge-generating loop of observe, hypothesize, experiment.

Modernism's epistemological foundation of reason and empirical data would obviously make it resist any inference of causes that are not both rational and empirically measurable.

As a result, modernism has several centuries of persistent skepticism of (a) inferences from general revelation that imply there is design or purpose in the universe, and (b) statements in special revelation that assert that God intervened in the universe in an undeniable and observable way that violates its normal cause-effect structure (i.e., miracles).

In the 19th century, this was seen in Darwin's alternate explanation for the origin of species (though we have yet to see anything comparable proposed for the origin of the universe or the origin of life...both areas are seen as highly speculative by even the most radical atheist/agnostic), and in the denial of miracles (other than a generic creation act) that characterized Deism, higher criticism, and what came to be called liberal Protestantism.

In both areas (general and special revelation), one primary motive was to harmonize traditional Christian understandings with (a) what was being discovered by the scientific method, and (b) assertions about epistemology being made by such philosophers as Kant and Hume(both expressed skepticism about knowing anything about the metaphysical). Hegel's notions about Progress also formalized a notion that remains to this day...that the sort of scientific progress we see in the technical arena will spread to the moral and social domains.

Needless to say, various 20th century experiments and thinkers largely destroyed the idea that modernism would provide a base in which all knowledge could be grounded.

In the domain of philosophy, logical positivism came and went, and Godel's Incompleteness Theorem destroyed the idea that all statements in any formal system are knowable (his mathematical treatment of a statement roughly analogous to "this statement is false" foreshadowed what has become a standard critique of any system that asserts it provides a sure foundation for knowledge).

In the popular mind, the limits of modernism are probably not appreciated...the march of technology largely obscures the fact that in such areas of cosmology, quantum-level physics, the structure and makeup of the universe, the origin of life, and macro-evolution (i.e., specific known mechanisms that demonstrate the spontaneous generation of novel biological structures/functions), science seems to have hit major speed-bumps, if not actual walls, while traditional appeals to such ideas as design (intelligent design) and the existence of God (in the field of philosophy) have seen a significant resurgence.

In the domains of morality and society, modernism's failures are much more obvious. The 20th century saw an unprecedented slaughter driven by such modern ideas as fascism and communism. And, western societies abandoned Biblical morality and disintegrated into a moral chaos so pervasive as to be virtually invisible to those born after 1970. Whether traditional western democracy, private property, freedom of speech, and freedom of religion can survive such a shift remains unclear.