Modernity’s reflexivity subverts reason’s claim to certitude.

Evidence

Probably we are only now, in the late twentieth century, beginning to realise in a full sense how deeply unsettling this outlook is. For when the claims of reason replaced those of tradition, they appeared to offer a sense of certitude greater than that provided by preexisting dogma. But this idea only appears persuasive so long as we do not see that the reflexivity of modernity actually subverts reason, at any rate where reason is understood as the gaining of certain knowledge. Modernity is constituted in and through reflexively applied knowledge, but the equation of knowledge with certitude has turned out to be misconceived. We are abroad in a world which is thoroughly constituted through reflexively applied knowledge, but where at the same time we can never be sure that any given element of that knowledge will not be revised. — Anthony Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity, 100

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: Paradigm shift: the Enlightenment promised more certitude than dogma but reflexivity dissolves certitude—a dense, counterintuitive reversal worth sitting with.
• XREF: Explains why Stevens’s trust in Darlington’s expertise is ungrounded: the institutional expert system promised certitude, but under modernity no knowledge is certain, so his deference was never rationally protected. — connects to: Modernity’s reflexivity rests on cultural commitment and power, not pure reason — Anthony Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity, 407; Modernity’s reflexivity makes its own rational grounds ultimately puzzling — Anthony Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity, 124; Modernity institutionalises doubt, making all knowledge claims inherently circular — Anthony Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity, 408 (+1 more)

Related

• Modernity’s reflexivity makes its own rational grounds ultimately puzzling (similarity 0.93)
• Modernity’s reflexivity rests on cultural commitment and power, not pure reason (similarity 0.88)
• Modernity is defined by wholesale reflexivity, not merely love of the new. (similarity 0.88)
• Modernity institutionalises doubt, making all knowledge claims inherently circular (similarity 0.88)
• Modernity’s core is an irreducible enigma that cannot be overcome (similarity 0.87)
• New social knowledge alters the social world rather than merely describing it (similarity 0.83)
• Contemporary transformations are modernity’s self-radicalization, not its ending (similarity 0.82)
• In modernity tradition is justified only by knowledge not derived from tradition. (similarity 0.82)
• Under modernity no knowledge is certain, in any science. (similarity 0.81)
• The feeling that systematic knowledge is impossible stems from uncontrollable modern events, not epistemology (similarity 0.80)
• Skepticism, modernism’s tool, is itself what killed the modern project. (similarity 0.79)
• Circular theory that merely reaffirms known political conclusions produces no new knowledge. (similarity 0.79)
• Modernity consists in the destabilization of the subject, not mere progress (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• Modernity’s reflexivity makes its own rational grounds ultimately puzzling #expands (0.90) — Anthony Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity, 124
• Modernity institutionalises doubt, making all knowledge claims inherently circular #expands (0.85) — Anthony Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity, 408