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Premodernity is a concept to compare society preceding modernity with the one existing in the latter. The essential distinction is the transformation of society due to industrialism, which in Europe followed the agricultural revolution of the 18th century and the democratic revolution in overseas colonies and on the continent. After the age of modernity, postmodernists and their sociological counterparts believe we already entered the age of postmodernity in the mid-20th century.

Premodern worldview

In the premodern era, truth was derived from authority (usually a god or gods), and was received through spiritual intermediaries in the form of religious officials. The common person did not have access to the divine except through the intermediaries, who often held positions of power. Tradition was seen as unshakeable and sacred. The state of things was generally seen as unchanging, and the social order was strictly enforced. People had very little means to make sense of the world around them, and so they explained the world they lived in largely through myth; thus the unknown became known, in a sense.

The end of premodernity

Western civilization made a gradual transition from premodernity to modernity when scientific methods were developed which led many to believe that the use of science would lead to all knowledge, thus throwing back the shroud of myth under which premoderns lived. Truth was seen as discoverable by empirical observation, and it was believed that eventually all the world's problems would be solved by applying the appropriate tools to the issues.

See also

• Modernity
• Postmodernity

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