Revolution

Revolution: in modern times, the fact or idea of violent, abrupt, or radical change. In the philosophical discourse of modernity, the idea of revolution is associated with sociology's [Page 642]view that contemporary institutions and culture are the result of the three great revolutions—the French, American, and Industrial. The idea of revolution has a long premodern history, where its meaning is connected less to rupture or break and more to the sense of circular or cyclical meaning or movement. From the Greeks to the Renaissance, revolution is more like its physical or mechanical counterpart, indicating the complete turn of a wheel or a full cycle of the seasons. Here, revolution alternates with restoration, indicating a cyclical conception of time. Modernity inaugurates a new conception of revolution ...