POSTMODERNISM

Reported by Abigail Garrido

 Postmodern Worldview -- How Postmodernism Changes the Rules

While there are significant disagreements among the various expressions of the postmodern
worldview there is a key belief that characterizes all of them: an acute awareness of our
“situatedness” as humans. As I described in a previous article (“Postmodernism Critique”),
postmoderns deny that there is any overarching story, or metanarrative to the world. Therefore,
we all come from a perspective, or bias, that is shaped by the culture, or the “little stories,” we
inhabit. As Kevin Vanhoozer states, “Postmoderns are so preoccupied with the situated self that
they cannot get beyond it.” Because of this “situatedness,” no one can claim objectivity for his or
her views.
This is the clearest difference between postmodernism and most other worldviews.
Whereas the central concern of other worldviews is what the real world actually is, the focus of
postmodernism is on how we perceive and how we describe what the world is.

 Postmodern Worldview – A Worldview of Contingency

In the postmodern worldview, everything is contingent; nothing is fixed. There are several
implications of confronting reality this way.
First, reality is ultimately unknowable. Our “situatedness” prevents us from directly
accessing the real world or having true knowledge about it. This is not to say that the real world is
not there (though some would suggest this), only that we can never shed our perspectives to access
it. No one has a “god’s eye view” of reality; therefore no one can claim to have the truth about it.
We are trapped in our situatedness. There are no foundations that are not themselves
contingent from which to build a certain and agreed-upon body of knowledge. Knowledge really
comes down to one’s perspective: we never really have the facts; there is only interpretation.
Second, truth and knowledge are constructions of language. They reflect the perspective of
the one who is claiming, but should not be confused as a statement of fact about actual reality. Of
course, if truth merely reflects one’s perspective and does not actually represent anything about
objective reality, it cannot be absolute. This is an inescapable conclusion of the postmodern
worldview: there is no absolute truth; there are only “truths.”
It is important to note that postmodernism does not necessarily argue that each person has
their own truth, but that our perspectives on what is true are shaped largely by the communities,
or cultures, we find ourselves in. Each community constructs, through language, its own story of
the world. No story is more true than another (since all stories are valid); but, in fact, truth is
produced by the narrative of a community. “Truths,” then, are not propositional statements about
reality, but rather narrative realities for a particular group; and every group is distinguished by
their particular use of language.
In a sense, the postmodern turn can be considered a linguistic turn. Richard Rorty puts it
this way, “We need to make a distinction between the claim that the world is out there and the
claim that truth is out there… To say that truth is not out there is simply to say that where there
are no sentences there is no truth, that sentences are elements of human languages, and that human
language are human creations… The world does not speak. Only we do.” In other words, since we
simply cannot escape language in our attempts to describe reality, all objectivity is jettisoned
(abandoned; discarded).
This view of language is at the root of the practice of “deconstruction” in literature, which
was first embraced by Jacque Derrida. He suggested that there is no fixed meaning of any text,
since it is only the perspective of the author. But, each reader has his perspective, too. Therefore,
the reader imposes meaning on the text. This meaning is not fixed, but rather every text can have
a multitude of meanings despite the original intention of the author.
A third implication of postmodernism is that progress is an illusion. The optimism of the
modern project, which was based on a false confidence in human objectivity and certainty, has
been chastened. “Advancement” and “achievement” are socially constructed concepts; they are
leftover baggage from modernity when we attempted to explain the world with metanarratives,
they are expressions of our “situatedness” that cannot be used to evaluate another culture or
another time.
Without the concept of progress, then what does it mean for a society to move forward (and
what does “forward” mean)? Richard Rorty suggests pragmatism. As ideas, expressions, and
concepts in a clash, one will emerge as a better working option; and something that works in a
particular culture (like monogamy) or situation (like an appropriate age of sexual consent) may
not in another culture or situation.

Terminologies:
 Metanarrative -a narrative about narratives of historical meaning, experience, or
knowledge, which offers a society legitimation through the anticipated completion of a
(as yet unrealized) master idea
 Contingency - possibility; something that might happen
 Pragmatism -an approach that assesses the truth of meaning of theories or beliefs in terms
of the success of their practical application.
 Enlightenment -a movement of the 18th century that stressed the belief that science and
logic give people more knowledge and understanding than tradition and religion.
CHARACTERISTICS OF POSTMODERNISM:

When listing the characteristics of postmodernism, it is important to remember that

postmodernists do not place their philosophy in a defined box or category. Their beliefs and
practices are personal rather than being identifiable with a particular establishment or special
interest group. The following principles appear elemental to postmodernists:

 There is no absolute truth - Postmodernists believe that the notion of truth is a contrived
illusion, misused by people and special interest groups to gain power over others.

 Truth and error are synonymous - Facts, postmodernists claim, are too limiting to
determine anything. Changing erratically, what is fact today can be false tomorrow.

 Self-conceptualization and rationalization - Traditional logic and objectivity are spurned

by postmodernists. Preferring to rely on opinions rather than embrace facts, postmodernist
spurn the scientific method.

 Traditional authority is false and corrupt - Postmodernists speak out against the
constraints of religious morals and secular authority. They wage intellectual revolution to
voice their concerns about traditional establishment.

 Ownership - They claim that collective ownership would most fairly administrate goods
and services.

 Disillusionment with modernism - Postmodernists rue the unfulfilled promises of

science, technology, government, and religion.

 Morality is personal - Believing ethics to be relative, postmodernists subject morality to

personal opinion. They define morality as each person’s private code of ethics without the
need to follow traditional values and rules.

 Globalization – Many postmodernists claim that national boundaries are a hindrance to

human communication. Nationalism, they believe, causes wars. Therefore, postmodernists
often propose internationalism and uniting separate countries.

 All religions are valid - Valuing inclusive faiths, postmodernists gravitate towards New
Age religion. They denounce the exclusive claims of Jesus Christ as being the only way to
God.

 Liberal ethics - Postmodernists defend the cause of feminists and homosexuals.

 Pro-environmentalism - Defending “Mother Earth,” postmodernists blame Western

society for its destruction.