The gordian knot of modernity

universalism and the writing of history in the formation of a disputed concept

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to problematize some of the existing tensions around the concept of modernity. Central to different areas of the human sciences, ‘modernity’ is a theme that brings together, in the same word, a concept and a periodization proposal, both essential instruments of historiographic writing. The aim here is to explore how the analysis of the concept of modernity, in connection with a specific idea of universalism, can help us to understand some characteristics present in European historiographical conceptions formulated in the 19th century, but which left persistent marks throughout much of the 20th century. In this direction, we sought to assess how the concept
of modernity ended up providing the parameters from which societies from other continents would be judged and, subsequently, hierarchized, with the peoples of Western Europe occupying the apex of this classification pyramid.