.
.
.
from Postmodernism
"All materials on
this site
( http://www.colorado.edu/English/ENGL2012Klages/pomo.html )
are written by,
and remain the propery of, Dr. Mary Klages,
Associate Professor,
English Department, University of
Colorado, Boulder."
"Perhaps the easiest way to start thinking about
postmodernism
is by thinking about modernism, the movement from which
postmodernism seems to grow or emerge....
The basic ideas of the
Enlightenment
are roughly the same
as the basic ideas of
humanism.
Jane Flax's article
("Postmodernism and Gender Relations in Feminist Theory",
included in
Feminism/Postmodernism,
Linda J. Nicholson, Editor)
(originally in
Signs, vol. 12, no. 4)
gives a good
summary of these ideas or premises (on p. 41).
I'll add a few things to her list.
.
1. There is a stable, coherent, knowable self. This self is conscious, rational, autonomous, and universal -- no physical conditions or differences substantially affect how this self operates.
2. This self knows itself and the world through reason, or rationality, posited as the highest form of mental functioning, and the only objective form.
3. The mode of knowing produced by the objective rational self is "science," which can provide universal truths about the world, regardless of the individual status of the knower.
4. The knowledge produced by science is "truth," and is eternal.
5. The knowledge/truth produced by science (by the rational objective knowing self) will always lead toward progress and perfection. All human institutions and practices can be analyzed by science (reason/objectivity) and improved.
6. Reason is the ultimate judge of what is true, and therefore of what is right, and what is good (what is legal and what is ethical). Freedom consists of obedience to the laws that conform to the knowledge discovered by reason.
7. In a world governed by reason, the true will always be the same as the good and the right (and the beautiful); there can be no conflict between what is true and what is right (etc.).-- and cf. the ancient Greek term "cosmos"
8. Science thus stands as the paradigm for any and all socially useful forms of knowledge. Science is neutral and objective; scientists, those who produce scientific knowledge through their unbiased rational capacities, must be free to follow the laws of reason, and not be motivated by other concerns (such as money or power).
9. Language, or the mode of expression used in producing and disseminating knowledge, must be rational also. To be rational, language must be transparent; it must function only to represent the real/perceivable world which the rational mind observes. There must be a firm and objective connection between the objects of perception and the words used to name them (between signifier and signified).
I would also be happy to use the ancient Greek word "cosmos" in place of "order" --
as defined by Thomas Martin , "an orderly arrangement that is beautiful .... lovely because it was ordered, ... not only the motions of the heavenly bodies but also everything else: the weather, the growth of plants and animals, human health and psychology, and so on."
Once again rephrasing Klages, "The assumption is that creating more rationality is conducive to harmonizing more effectively with the Tao, or the Cosmos, and that the more in harmony with the truth a society is, the better it will function (the more harmoniously it will function)."
"Modernity is simply the sense or the idea that the present is discontinuous with the past, that through a process of social and cultural change (either through improvement, that is, progress, or through decline) life in the present is fundamentally different from life in the past. This sense or idea as a world view contrasts with what I will call tradition, which is simply the sense that the present is continuous with the past, that the present in some way repeats the forms, behavior, and events of the past."Links are mine -- ed.
"The camera suddenly allowed the painting or the statue to appear, not only in a singular physical context, but also in the textbook that could be distributed around the world. Increasing democratization of Western Civilization had removed the elite from the position of cultural guardian. Culture was placed in the hands of the common man (sic). For some, this created a crisis."
"What placed the stamp on the Enlightenment was this analytical method of Newtonian physics applied to the entire field of thought and knowledge. Order and regularity came from the analysis of observed facts. (Gotthold Ephraim) Lessing said that the real power of reason lay not in the possession but in the acquisition of truth. So pure analysis was applied to psychological and social processes. From here on out the doctrine of historical and sociological determinism (the application of the principle of causality to social science) was generally accepted. Many historicists have ridiculed this naive scientific positivism. By facile dogmatism the philosophes frequently ignored their own method."
"The great reward of Western causal logic has been technology and the manipulation of the environment. The loss has come about because we consider every act as a closed system with short range predictable consequences. The result is therefore a loss of meaning to the act."
The Parable of the Beast
by John N. Bleitreu
page 33
"Rational discourse generates order. For the rational subject, there is a necessary imperative to think in a particular way. The sensual (empirical) self is displaced in favour of an ordered self, the body becomes a useful, servile instrument. The rational community structures individuals in formal terms, as a functional unit of rational discourse."
-- some fascinating comments on modernism, postmodernism, and the poetry of John Cage
"Western culture has not survived this century; we float and make our lives, says Steiner, from the surface wreckage, the post-culture, and in the depths the largest fragments anchor vast, proliferating reefs of coral scholarship. ...
The death of the culture is not just the breaking of the chain of tradition, of reference. The confidence of the culture has been shattered as well. The automatic, unself-conscious elitism it once possessed is gone --- Western culture is unique for its assaults on itself --- and the unforced ease with which it distinguished and evaluated, created hierarchy and gave itself a high place therein is lost to all but the fatuous. That the great events of our century --- the ``Thirty Year's War'' of 1914--1945, the genocides, the bureaucratization of terror and torture and death, the real possibility of deliberate human extinction at the press of a button --- that these were even possible would have struck those of prior centuries as ``nightmarish jokes.'' The optimistic beliefs of those centuries, of the prior tradition --- that there is progress, that the humanities make one humane, that ``the future is holy'' --- in their turn begin to seem like nightmarish jokes."
-- and see also "'Applied Science' and Superstition"
(originally "The Human Uses of Science") by Paul Goodman
"This masterwork of interpretative history begins with a bold declaration: The Modern Age is the Jewish Age -- and we are all, to varying degrees, Jews.
The assertion is, of course, metaphorical. But it underscores Yuri Slezkine's provocative thesis. Not only have Jews adapted better than many other groups to living in the modern world, they have become the premiere symbol and standard of modern life everywhere.
Slezkine argues that the Jews were, in effect, among the world's first free agents. They traditionally belonged to a social and anthropological category known as "service nomads," an outsider group specializing in the delivery of goods and services. Their role, Slezkine argues, was part of a broader division of human labor between what he calls Mercurians -- entrepreneurial minorities -- and Apollonians -- food-producing majorities.
Since the dawning of the Modern Age, Mercurians have taken center stage. In fact, Slezkine argues, modernity is all about Apollonians becoming Mercurians -- urban, mobile, literate, articulate, intellectually intricate, physically fastidious, and occupationally flexible. Since no group has been more adept at Mercurianism than the Jews, he contends, these exemplary ancients are now model moderns."