Monday, January 25, 2010
“There is a sense in which if one sees modernism as the culture of modernity, postmodernism is the culture of postmodernity” (Sarup 1993). Postmodernism argues that truth is entirely a product of consensus values where science itself is just the name we attach to certain modes of explanation. It looks at the construction of scientific knowledge, scrutinizes modernistic ideals of progress, truth, growth and intrinsic value (science = truth = progress) to show that science is a product of culture, that scientific models are not removed from moral tendencies, i.e. belief that science is value neutral and thus it cannot be held responsible for environmental problems it creates. it is safest to grasp the concept of postmodern as an attempt to think the present historically in an age that has forgotten how to think historically in the first place. It either "expresses" some deeper irrepressible historical impulse or effectively "represses" and diverts it, depending on the side of the ambiguity you happen to favor. Postmodernism is a loose coalition of diverse thinkers from several different academic disciplines, so it is difficult to characterize postmodernism in a way that would be fair to this diversity. Still, it is possible to provide a fairly accurate characterization of postmodernism in general, since its friends and foes understand it well enough to debate its strengths and weaknesses. At a philosophical standpoint, postmodernism is primarily a reinterpretation of what knowledge is and what counts as knowledge. More broadly, it represents a form of cultural relativism about such things as reality, truth, reason, value, linguistic meaning, the self and other notions. On a postmodernist view, there is no such thing as objective reality, truth, value, reason and so forth. All these are social constructions, creations of linguistic practices and, as such, are relative not to individuals, but to social groups that share a narrative. Postmodernism claims that truth is simply a contingent creation of language which expresses customs, emotions, and values embedded in a community’s linguistic practices.
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Cool! Great post! I like how you got another source. I haven't seen that one. You also got some new insight that I haven't really thought about. You really got into the background and dissected postmodernism. That was very good. YOu got into the idea of postmodernism and what its background is as well. It would have been also good if you would have put in some examples. Like using any of the books that we read this year. Since they are pretty crazy. Or even going far as to look at our society and seeing if postmodernism has helped us or just created more problems. Anyways, great post and very insightful.
ReplyDeleteWow, good job Vivian! I think this is one of your best posts. It showed a lot of thought, and you brought up ways of thinking of Postmodernism that hadn't really occurred to me. Some of it had, though, like the stuff that we've discussed in class and the like, such as the discources and the lack of objective reality, truth, etc. Like Connie said, would have been even better if you could have incorporated some of the books or articles from first semester, but I'm not complaining. Anyways, enjoyed reading this one, it was very nice. Keep up the good work! Bye :)
ReplyDeleteWoah, your post is so sophistocated sounding!! You're such a great writer. I like how you point out that there is no objective truth, and that all truths are social constructions that are relative to those social groups and not the individuals. Whether or not that's true, that's what Postmodernists argue and you did a fantastic job capturing that. Also, I like how you mention that Postmodernism represents diversity, and can't be defined for that reason. I think that is a reason that PM says we can't define a lot of things. Great insight!
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