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Critique of Modernity. By Alain Touraine. Translated by David Macey. Cambridge, MA: Basil Blackwell, 1995. 398p. $54.95.
One of the peculiar attributes of the modern and contemporary understanding of modernity is that it is no longer contrasted with antiquity. It has come to be viewed as an independent autonomous topic. The great advantage of this self-understanding is that it permits elaborate and endless discourse that never quite becomes analysis. Instead, working within the unanalyzed assumptions of modern self-understanding, discourse (one may use impersonal terminology in such matters, though it is not compulsory) can construct its own linguistic entities and then turn around and--with equal rigor, enthusiasm, and skill--proceed to deconstruct. For reasons, perhaps, of quiet cultural pride in the face of military disaster, French intellectuals have adopted and adapted this German device to a degree greater than that of any other group of people. Alain Touraine is a master of the genre. Those who find the enterprise appealing will, on the occasion of the publication of this book, applaud the results as the work of a maitre-penseur. Those who are puzzled by opacity of argumentation and bored by repetitive, allusive language bursting with metaphors may wish not to devote their time to his text. Taking a position in this way-0no less than having the option of so doing--is a very modern way of proceeding.