Modernity is best understood as the civilization produced by global capitalism

Evidence

The superiority of historical materialism as social theory does not imply that there is no place for the vocabulary of modernity. Terms such as ‘modernization’ may serve descriptively to characterize the changes involved in the development of industrial capitalism. Furth­ ermore,‘these changes do involve a radically novel mode of living by comparison with all precapitalist social formations, for example, with respect to the active and transformative relation between humanity and nature characteristic of capitalism, the development of qualita­ tively new forms of urban life, and the emergence of a homogeneous and linear conception of time. Fernand Braudel argues that the concept of civilization, of ‘an order, bringing together thousands of cultural possessions effectively different from, and at first sight even foreign to, each other - goods, that range from those of the spirit and the intellect to the tools and objects of everyday life’, is ‘a category of history, a necessary classification’. Perhaps we should think of modernity as the kind of civilization formed by the development and global dominance of the capitalist mode of production. — Alex Callinicos, Against Postmodernism, 162

Fernand Braudel argues that the concept of civilization, of ‘an order, bringing together thousands of cultural possessions effectively different from, and at first sight even foreign to, each other - goods, that range from those of the spirit and the intellect to the tools and objects of everyday life’, is ‘a category of history, a necessary classification’. Perhaps we should think of modernity as the kind of civilization formed by the development and global dominance of the capitalist mode of production. — Alex Callinicos, Against Postmodernism, 162

Categorization

• XREF: Offers a substantive alternative to both Jameson’s and Berman’s accounts of modernity — central to the reader’s counterargument project. — connects to: Modernity should be defined as the civilization capitalism built. — Alex Callinicos, Against Postmodernism: A Marxist…, 162; Western modernity is a hegemonic particularism disguised as universalism — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2: Identity…, 153; Capitalism is a symptom of something deeper and unnameable in Western civilization — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 1427 (+8 more)
• corroborated: 3 independent passages support this claim — Alex Callinicos, Against Postmodernism: A Marxist…, 162

Broader Connections

• Modernity should be defined as the civilization capitalism built. #corroborates (0.95) — Alex Callinicos, Against Postmodernism, 162
• Capitalism is a symptom of something deeper and unnameable in Western civilization #contradicts (0.80) — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 1427
• Colonialism constitutes modernity itself rather than merely deriving from it #expands (0.80) — Wael Hallaq, Restating Orientalism, 44
• Capitalism reproduces itself by drawing civil and cultural life into conformity with its needs #expands (0.80)
• Capitalism and materialism shape a society’s entire worldview and value system #expands (0.80)
• Western modernity is a hegemonic particularism disguised as universalism #qualifies (0.75) — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2, 153
• Capitalist modernity cannot be understood from its internal dynamics alone #expands (0.75) — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2, 487
• Capitalism’s form was determined by preexisting feudal civilization #contradicts (0.75)
• Capitalism created the first global economy based on economics rather than politics #expands (0.75) — Anthony Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity, 173
• Modern freedom rests on an unacknowledged capitalist metaphysic #expands (0.75)
• Modernity cannot be sustained without colonialism and genocide in all their forms #expands (0.75)