This paper explores the post-Budapest attempt by György Markus to develop a theory of the constitution of cultural modernity. Commencing from the biography of his emigration to Australia in the late 1970's, it reconstructs the main elements of his novel attempt in terms of a theory of modern cultural pragmatics, which explores the sui generis cultural relations in science, philosophy and art. In this account we come to appreciate his distinctive contribution to contemporary theorization of Enlightenment and also his understanding of the anti-nomous unity of Enlightenment and Romantic attitudes as the basic constitutive elements of cultural modernity, as well as his own program for a philosophy equal to its challenges.