ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author examines the idea of modernity around the notion of a 'reference culture' by taking as major examples modernity and Europe. He argues that modernity can be termed a first-order reference culture and Europe a second-order one. Modernity is conditions in which new structures develop that allow ideas or principles to guide human action in finding answers to some of the key challenges facing all societies. Modernity is itself in terms of its primary orientation a singular order of reference, which can also be considered to be a cognitive order that provides the basic design or blueprint for modern societies. In drawing attention to key problems modern societies have to address, and which define the condition of modernity, Wagner solves a problem that has beset other approaches that addressed the plurality of modernity. In Castoriadis's account, the plurality of forms of modernity are responses to central 'problematiques' that all modern societies seek to answer.
