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ENLIGHTENMENT PROJECTSociologyindex, Sociology Books 2012 In order to understand what postmodernism is about it is essential to understand what modernity means for the social sciences and this is linked to what is deemed to be the ‘enlightenment project’. The age of enlightenment ushered in human rationality as the source of knowledge, thus encouraging the rejection of previous authorities such as the church or custom. This new acceptance of human rationality became linked to science as the key to understanding the natural and social worlds, and led to a search to understand causality and to the belief that human rationality would lead to a more enlightened age, a progressive age characterized by human liberation. These beliefs shape social sciences by giving science a privileged position in the pursuit of truth, encouraging the search for sets of concepts to provide a framework for understanding social life regardless of particular social situations or time and the acceptance of ‘metanarratives’ (large and abstract social theory including sociology) as superior to other narrative accounts about society. Much of this is apparent in some of the works of Karl Marx. Marxian theory is a large metanarrative about the historical development of western societies such that it includes all stories about society and because of its claim to be based on scientific observation and its use of a conceptual framework (modes of production, relations of production) it claims a privileged position and a universal nature (it is to apply to all capitalist societies). Further, it is claimed that by using the metanarrative the consciousness of workers can be enhanced (corrected) and an age of liberation will follow. Modernity or the enlightenment project is reflected in ‘positivism’, the importance of the ‘scientific method’, the belief that social science can be used to better society (Emile Durkheim is very explicit) and the sweeping away of the subjective beliefs of ‘ordinary actors’.
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