Modernidades múltiples y encuentro de civilizaciones

Abstract

This paper argues against the conception that consider western modernity as an all-encompasing concept which has been the original from which has been taken copies all over the world. Instead of this predominat sociological assumption I argue that there are «multiple modernities» which develop the cultural and political program of modernity in many civilizations in their own terms. In order to ilustrate this I analyze the origin of western modernity in Europe, the exceptionalism of american modernity, the transformation of western modernity in Japan and the modern antimodernity of the jacobin conception of modernity carried out by the fundamentalist movenments.