What is Post-Modernism? (Part Two)

“The world is not becoming meaningless; it is becoming so saturated with symbolism that meaning itself no longer means anything.“

In my last article for Merion West I discussed what I called post-modernism as a philosophical position. This referred to the loosely affiliated theoretical positions of a variety of seminal intellectual figures. In particular, I discussed the philosophical work of Michel Foucault and Jacques Derrida, who are often labeled the poster children of the vague “post-modern neo-Marxist” movement by critics who are above reading their opponents in a serious way. In my essay, I argued that post-modernism as a philosophical position is defined by skepticism towards claims that we can arrive at absolute certainty in our scientific, philosophical, and moral reasoning. This is largely because the language we reason with is not simply a neutral tool for gaining uninhibited access to the external world. Often times, the language we use is vague and open to indefinite interpretations. Post-modern philosophers attracted to these skeptical positions also wanted to account for why certain interpretations come to be socially-favored over others. This privileging often resulted in considerable social and personal costs, which had only recently been acknowledged.  For instance, Foucault draws our attention to the way pseudo-science has been used to justify slavery and economic exploitation of the “less” evolved. Derrida observed that our understanding of life is implicitly dependent on recognizing the inevitability of death, thereby blurring the line between the two. And so on.

Why the Shift to the Post-Modern Epoch?

“In contemporary society and culture – post-industrial society, postmodern culture – the question of the legitimation of knowledge is formulated in different terms.  The grand narrative has lost its credibility, regardless of what mode of unification it uses, regardless of whether it is a speculative narrative or a narrative of emancipation.”

Jean Francois Lyotard, The Post-Modern Condition

In this article, I am going to conclude my introduction to post-modernism by summarizing the other major way to understand it. This is as an epoch in the history of developed societies: one characterized by specific material, socio-cultural, and communicative practices. Those who argued that post-modernism is an epoch in the history of developed societies often approach the subject in a very different way than its philosophical proponents. While they would often agree that ours is a more skeptical time, these thinkers were keen to analyze and then criticize the immense transformations that underpinned this shift. Perhaps inevitably, these thinkers who regard post-modernism as an epoch vary widely in their theoretical and political diagnoses.