How according to C.E.M joad modern civilization different from old ones
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How is modern civilization different from old civilization?
There are large-scale structural similarities between ancient and modern civilization that reveal continuities from the origins of civilization to the present day, but there are also some discontinuities that have changed the character of life over time.
Perhaps the most obvious example that will be the first thing on everyone’s mind is the difference in technology. It is pretty obvious that technology today is much more advanced that technology in the ancient world. Technology today is also widely distributed and relatively cheap. Everyone uses high technology today, while the highest technology gadgets manufactured in the ancient world were relatively rare and few people owed or used technology in the sense that we understand “technology.”
On the deeper level, technology has changed the texture of the world we live in. (This observation is due to philosopher of technology Don Ihde.) While tools, thus technology, are older than human beings, and some other species use tools, the technological texture of our world is different from that of the past. It is likely that, whoever you are reading this, wherever you are located, you are probably surrounded by technology. You are probably in a building, wearing clothes made by machines, and every item in your pockets are also probably made by machines.
This is very different from the past, and quite different from the texture of life in ancient civilization. While people in the past lived in buildings and wore manufactured clothing (albeit manufactured by hand), most items within reach would have been plant or animal products. This is no longer the case. So one sense in which modern civilization differs from ancient civilization is the technological texture of life today.
Another obvious difference is that the economy of early civilizations was essentially agricultural (less frequently, pastoral). Most people throughout the history of most of human civilization have been employed in the production of food. This is no longer true. Since the industrial revolution, farming has accounted for an increasingly marginal proportion of the work force, so that, while in the past almost everyone worked in food production, today every few individuals (usually 2–3% of the workforce of an industrialized nation-state) work in food production.
This shift from agriculture to industry has also changed the texture of life. Living and working in an industrialized society means that most people do wage labor and are paid for this wage labor in a fiat currency, which they then use to purchase the necessities of life. When people lived on farms and engaged in subsistence agriculture, they were immediately employed in their own survival. If your crop failed, it may mean starvation for you and your family. This immediate connection to the land, to food production, and the distribution of goods and services has changed dramatically.
The technological texture of life noted above is also related to the industrial revolution: by making manufactured products cheap and widely available, it eventually made possible consumer electronics, and the contemporary reality of everyone carrying a computer around in their pocket. Moreover, the distinct social institutions of industrialized society, in so far as they are social technologies, are another instance of the technology with which we surround ourselves and which lends a technological texture to our lives.
Today almost all societies are organized around some variation on the theme of popular sovereignty, i.e., the idea that the ultimate source of authority in a society is the people. This is as true of one-party communist dictatorships like China as it is of multi-party democracies like the US. In theory (even if often not in fact) the ordinary person is supposed to be the source of political authority. This differs radically from all traditional regimes (with a few exceptions) in which authority was either held by a royal family, a charismatic religious leader, a religious institution, a war lord, etc. None of these political institutions of ancient civilizations recognized the authority of the people. Democratic Athens for a while was close to popular sovereignty, and Rome once it began appointing a Tribune of the People, moved in the direction of popular sovereignty, but these were exceptions.
Because of the magnifying effect of technology, and the exponentially greater number of human beings now alive, contemporary civilization has a much greater impact on the planet, and especially upon the biosphere, than earlier civilizations, whose numbers and technological capabilities were extremely limited in comparison to our own
There are large-scale structural similarities between ancient and modern civilization that reveal continuities from the origins of civilization to the present day, but there are also some discontinuities that have changed the character of life over time.
Perhaps the most obvious example that will be the first thing on everyone’s mind is the difference in technology. It is pretty obvious that technology today is much more advanced that technology in the ancient world. Technology today is also widely distributed and relatively cheap. Everyone uses high technology today, while the highest technology gadgets manufactured in the ancient world were relatively rare and few people owed or used technology in the sense that we understand “technology.”
On the deeper level, technology has changed the texture of the world we live in. (This observation is due to philosopher of technology Don Ihde.) While tools, thus technology, are older than human beings, and some other species use tools, the technological texture of our world is different from that of the past. It is likely that, whoever you are reading this, wherever you are located, you are probably surrounded by technology. You are probably in a building, wearing clothes made by machines, and every item in your pockets are also probably made by machines.
This is very different from the past, and quite different from the texture of life in ancient civilization. While people in the past lived in buildings and wore manufactured clothing (albeit manufactured by hand), most items within reach would have been plant or animal products. This is no longer the case. So one sense in which modern civilization differs from ancient civilization is the technological texture of life today.
Another obvious difference is that the economy of early civilizations was essentially agricultural (less frequently, pastoral). Most people throughout the history of most of human civilization have been employed in the production of food. This is no longer true. Since the industrial revolution, farming has accounted for an increasingly marginal proportion of the work force, so that, while in the past almost everyone worked in food production, today every few individuals (usually 2–3% of the workforce of an industrialized nation-state) work in food production.
This shift from agriculture to industry has also changed the texture of life. Living and working in an industrialized society means that most people do wage labor and are paid for this wage labor in a fiat currency, which they then use to purchase the necessities of life. When people lived on farms and engaged in subsistence agriculture, they were immediately employed in their own survival. If your crop failed, it may mean starvation for you and your family. This immediate connection to the land, to food production, and the distribution of goods and services has changed dramatically.
The technological texture of life noted above is also related to the industrial revolution: by making manufactured products cheap and widely available, it eventually made possible consumer electronics, and the contemporary reality of everyone carrying a computer around in their pocket. Moreover, the distinct social institutions of industrialized society, in so far as they are social technologies, are another instance of the technology with which we surround ourselves and which lends a technological texture to our lives.
Today almost all societies are organized around some variation on the theme of popular sovereignty, i.e., the idea that the ultimate source of authority in a society is the people. This is as true of one-party communist dictatorships like China as it is of multi-party democracies like the US. In theory (even if often not in fact) the ordinary person is supposed to be the source of political authority. This differs radically from all traditional regimes (with a few exceptions) in which authority was either held by a royal family, a charismatic religious leader, a religious institution, a war lord, etc. None of these political institutions of ancient civilizations recognized the authority of the people. Democratic Athens for a while was close to popular sovereignty, and Rome once it began appointing a Tribune of the People, moved in the direction of popular sovereignty, but these were exceptions.
Because of the magnifying effect of technology, and the exponentially greater number of human beings now alive, contemporary civilization has a much greater impact on the planet, and especially upon the biosphere, than earlier civilizations, whose numbers and technological capabilities were extremely limited in comparison to our own
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