A Study Of Bauman's Reflection On Modernity

The development of modernity has created a rich material world for mankind.People believe that with the help of science and rational,society will develop in a better direction.However,because of the emergence of the two world wars,the advent of the ecological crisis,the crisis of human‘s self-identification and so on,the dream has been broken.Because of this,thinkers began to reflect on modernity in many ways and try to solve the problems of modern society.Contemporary sociologist Zygmunt Bauman find a new path to reflect on modernity from the perspective of sociology,he understand modernity as a gardening project,formed a unique thought which is gardening culture,this undoubtedly provides us a new way to think about modern social problems outside the well-known framework of modernity research.This paper studies at Bauman's gardening culture from four aspects.The first part mainly discusses the formation and the process of gardening culture.Bauman believed that the emergence of modern issues such as the loss of human‘s spiritual home and the deterioration of the external living environment indicated that enlightenment modernity had gone bankrupt,and we must find the source of its failure.The second is the inheritance of the critical thought of modernity.Marx's critical theory of modernity inspires Bauman to think about social reality;the panopticon theory of Foucault gave Bauman a new understanding of modernity;Adorno's enlightenment dialectics made Bauman reposition modernity;Levinas' s ethic which is "responsible for others " provided a new way to solve the modernity issues for Bauman.Finally,the idea of gardening culture was put forward.Bauman‘s life experiences were devious and his ideological process had thus undergone three stages of transformation: ?belief,? ?hope,? and ?compassion.? It was this unique life experience and philosophical sentiment that had made Bauman had a different perspective,then the thought of gardening culture had been put forward.The second part elaborates the dream of modern gardening.The first is from the wilderness to civilization.The Enlightenment movement made people from barbaric and disorderly obscurity to an orderly and diversified civilization.Bauman also understood modernity as a process of transformation from wilderness culture to gardening culture,and building the world into a well-ordered garden is the universal dream of modern people.Secondly,the geometric grid is used as the template for building the garden.In the so-called highly civilized modern society,people have been unable to tolerate any more disorder.In order to realize the orderly society,they try to put all things into the geometric grid supported by science and rationality.The third part reveals the consequences of gardening.First,Bauman exposes the inherent contradiction of modernity.He believes that although the modern gardening project has a clear pursuit of order and certainty,the uncertainty is full of the entire world.The contradiction arises from the internality of modernity and cannot be eliminated,so it would bring bad consequences to eliminate contradictions and confusion.Secondly,Bauman pointed out that the "massacre" is the inevitable consequence of the modern gardening project.Pursuing unity is the goal of modernity.If things do not conform to order,they will be slaughtered.At the same time,rational bureaucracy and highly developed modern science and technology provide feasibility for the realization of "massacre".Therefore,Bauman believed that the "massacre" was a unique product of modern civilization.The fourth part compares Marx and Bowman's modernity critical thoughts to reveal the value and limitations of the thought of Bauman's gardening cultural.First,Marx and Bauman have different attributions to modernity issues.Marx attributed the generation of modern issues to capitalist private ownership;Bauman attributed it to the "deification" of science and rationality.Secondly,Marx and Bauman have different solutions to the problem of modernity.Marx advocated eradicating private ownership and establishing public ownership,and finally realized communist society through a series of practices;Bauman advocated breaking the blind faith in science and rationality,to be tolerant to differences and confusion,and moving from tolerance to Synergism by making moral responsibility return to people.