Postmodernity

Postmodernity (also called post-modernity or the postmodern condition) is a term used by philosophers, social scientists, art critics and social critics to refer to aspects of contemporary art, culture, economics and social conditions that are the result of the unique features of late 20th century and early 21st century life. Among these features are included globalization, consumerism, the fragmentation of authority, and the commoditization of knowledge. (See Modernity)

Criticisms of Post-Modernity

Criticisms of the post-modern condition can broadly be put into four categories: criticisms of post-modernity from the perspective of those who reject modernism and its offshoots, criticisms from supporters of modernism who believe that post-modernity lacks crucial characteristics of the modern project, critics from within post-modernity who seek reform or change based on their understanding of post-modernism, and those who believe that post-modernity is a passing, and not a growing, phase in social organization.

Related Topics:
Modernism - Post-modernism

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Anti-Modern Critiques

Many philosophical movements reject both modernity and post-modernity as healthy states of being. Many of these are associated with cultural conservatism, and with some branches of Christian theology. In this view post-modernity is seen as a rejection of basic spiritual or natural truths, and the emphasis on material and physical pleasure is explicitly a rejection of inner balance and spirituality.

Related Topics:
Conservatism - Christian - Theology

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Many of these critiques attack, specifically, the perceived "abandonment of objective truth" as being the crucial unacceptable feature of the post-modern condition, often with the aim of offering a metanarrative that provides exactly this truth.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Modernist Critiques of Post-Modernity

Critic Timothy Bewes called Post-Modernity "an historical blip", a "cynical reaction" against the Enlightenment, and against the progress of the modern project. This viewpoint, that features attributed to post-modernity, including consumerism, are "kitsch" and a turning away from fundamental deep structure and uncompromising progress is one which is levelled by art critic Robert Hughes as well. Instead, from this viewpoint, post-modernity is a subsidiary historical moment in a larger modern period.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

James Fowler argues that post-modernity is characterized by the "loss of conviction", and Grenz concurs, saying that post-modernity is a period of pessimism contrasting with modernity's optimism.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

However, the most influential proponent of this critique is Jürgen Habermas, who contends that all responses to modernity abandon either the critical or rational element in philosophy, and that the post-modern condition is one of self-deception over the uncompleted nature of the modern project. He argues that without both critical and rational traditions, society cannot value the individual, and that social structures will tend towards totalitarianism. From his perspective, universalism is the fundamental requirement for any rational criticism, and to abandon this is to abandon the liberalizing reforms of the last two centuries.

Related Topics:
Jürgen Habermas - Liberalizing

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

This argument is then extended to state that Post-modernity is counter-enlightenment (see The Enlightenment, modern responses). Richard Wolin in his book The Seduction of Unreason argues that key advocates of post-modernity began with a fascination for fascism. This is related to the theory that Romanticism is a reactionary philosophy and that Naziism was an outgrowth of Romanticism, a widely held viewpoint among modernist philosophers and writers. They argue that the cultural particularlity, and identity politics of post-modernity, by which they mean the consequences of holding to post-structuralist views, is "what Germany had from 1933-1945". They further argue that post-modernity requires an acceptance of "reactionary" criticisms that amount to anti-Americanism. Stephen Hicks in his book Explaining Postmodernism extends this explanation further back to the beginnings of the Counter-Enlightenment in the skepticism of Hume and Kant and the anti-liberalism of Rousseau.

Related Topics:
Counter-enlightenment - The Enlightenment - Richard Wolin - Romanticism - Naziism - Identity politics - Anti-Americanism - Hume - Kant - Rousseau

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Post-modernists, including Lyotard and Stanley Fish, see Habermas' problem as being that he desires to rationalize universalism, and that the entire critique rests on the modernists' insufficient faith in social mechanisms to work. (See post-empiricism).

Related Topics:
Stanley Fish - Post-empiricism

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

This debate is seen by philosophers such as Richard Rorty as being a debate between modern and post-modern philosophy rather than being related to the condition of post-modernity per se. It also grows out of a common agreement on both sides that modernity is rooted in a rationalized set of Enlightenment values, which were ascribed to that period by the early modern.

Related Topics:
Richard Rorty - Post-modern philosophy - Modernity

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

(See also Hypermodernity)

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Critiques within Post-Modernity

The range of critiques of the post-modern condition from those who generally accept it is quite broad, and impossible to easily summarize, since the debate is contemporary and on going. The list below includes some which have generated controversy and interest, and is not intended to be taken as comprehensive or exclusive.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

One criticism is phrased as "The future ain't what it used to be". In this view, the world "promised" in the late 1960's and early 1970's has not arrived, and instead, the current incarnation of society is, somehow, less appealing, or at least less advanced than the "postmodernity" envisioned previously.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Another criticism levelled at post-modernity from within is expressed by author David Foster Wallace, who argues that the trend towards more and more ironic and referential expression has reached a limit, and that a movement back towards "sincerity" is required, where the artist actually says what she intends to have taken as meaning.

Related Topics:
David Foster Wallace - Meaning

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~