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Post-modernism

12/06/2016

1. Marked the departure from modernism


2. Critique of structures. Postmodernism= poststructuralism
is a critique of what we assume to be real. The basis on which we built
society are social constructs such as power relations, gender binaries,
etc.
postmodernins plays with, satirises or deconstructs
ex: good vs evil
male vs female
there is no set definition. There are no values that everyone agrees
upon.

Started :late 19th century. Reaction to hyper rationalism- nothing was


purely objective no true objective truth
Any view post the modern period challenging structures rather than
being something in itself
Architecture, lit, music ,
RE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DO_gaxFIRX

3. def weird for the sake of weird Moe Szyslak


denied the enlightenment thesis
intellectual trends
two-level theory
things as they appear vs scientific image (which explain the
behaviour of things the manifest level
manifest image vs. scientific image
by the 1960 this has turned into structuralism and post- structuralism
things are determined by social structures. Originated in Marx. The
structuralists extend that to a social level. Thinkers in this field are
anthropologists. => social structures determine most of what we do
manifest image- we think that ourselves are free

we act for reason


we act rightly or wrongly , virtuously or viciously
we take responsibility
scientific image
we are determined by factors we are not aware of
we have no resposabilty
reasons are mere rationalisations

in the enlightenment there are


-universal truths
the best way to find that is reason
progress: if we follow reason we will progress and therefore
attain objective knowledge
\\\all this is denied by postmodernism
Definition :
def weird for the sake of weird Moe Szyslak haha
start with Hegel:
attacks the idea of immediacy, that thought and language relate to the
world directly
you take a tangible object( ex the screen ) the senses provide some
clues but in between a person and a (tangible) object are concepts.
What are you perceiving?
Kant: three acts of sintesis
There is a complex mix of sensations that you receive by trying
perceive a tangible object
The mind is organising the swirling mass of mental acts into one
object your minds- the screen is a product of conceptual activity

Russel :
Reffering to for example : the king of france (existing thing that you
dont have access to because it is too far) is conceptual too
Rene Descartes (Enlightenment starting modernism)
Put knowledge into a secure foundation: I am going to doubt everything.
My very doubt is an act of thinking
cogito ergo sum
I know my own mind ore securely than anything else
I could not be dreaming if I did not exist. In between me and other might
be something , but in between me and myself there is nothing => I
have full access to my own mind
Contradiction: the emotions might interfere with how you perceive your
self-knowledge.
Postmodernism denies this:
when you think about your own state of mind you use concepts
in the same way you would use them to describe the world
around you => DECENTERING
compare to Wittgenstein : The limits of my language are the
limits of my world buuut you are not in the centre of your
world
you do not have direct access to anything. Everything is mediated.
Argument : where do you get the concepts of myself from ( ex angry,
even tempered) ?? society (the word is already there: in the language
of the society you live in, governed by norms)
Focus
Jacques Derrida : everything is a text there is nothing outside of the
text
Language is a system of differences. Helps us differentiate. The
differences that we are given help us identify the objects in the world.
Language establishes a structure.( part of witttgenstein)
Wittgenstein never tells us what an object is! Language gives us a
structure but it does not give us an answer to what objects are
Take a structure : there is no way of answering what the parts of the
structure are.

Language can not distinguish between two identical worlds because we do


not have a way of talking about the :knods
What is the difference between fiction and non-fiction, reporting and
telling a story ( that Witty will not say,. They would think about how the
description relates to the world but the postmodernist will argue that we
use a concepts to describe the world and these are by no means
absolutely true and absolute => we do not have a reliable way of relating
to the world because we still can not know what the world is because we
have no way of defining it other than our subjective, flawed, (outdated )
concepts)
truths are social constructions : RELATIVISM
The thory of rejecting thories :scepticism
Reason is a tool of oppression. The emotions of the oppresses
are the best tool to understanding the world. Postmodernism is
incredulity towards metanarratives (not believing stories about
stories ) LOGOCENTRISM
Fight oppression by exposing the meta-narratives by which the
empowered retain hegemony :LIBETATION Humberto Eco
Contradicting postmodernism :
-you can say that the concept of a cat is a social contract but you cant say
that the cat is a social construct
it is self-refuting : the theory of rejecting theories
RE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=we6cwmzhbBE
4. what comes after post-modernism
for me:
after the shock of post-modernism and coming to the conclusion that
there is no way of comparing, contrasting and applying the truths I
find by doing a using ration because there is simply no way of
understanding the world itself. There are no objective, perfectly
rational ways of relation describing the world. All we can use are the
concepts that are the product of observations, emotions, perceptions,
external factors and, least but not least, society. All of these are in my
opinion outdated and can not be used because they were crated in a
time when the system was different. The emotions, external factors
and other ..factors would have changed the world around in the period
of that has pass between then the concept was created and today.
Therefore the word used to describe something in the past can not be
use because not only did that something change, but the observer
himself and many other factors in the research process have changes.
The mere worlds that are used to describe something have attached to
them a connotation that is appropriated to the social norms of a period
and the discoveries, crisis, beliefs etc. ( uhh. This is impossible)

Is decisions are : based of perception, emotions, out-dated perceptions


and emotions :D, social norms and common beliefs, sceptic of theories,
do not have a means to find an ultimate truth, assigns everything
preserved as reality as mere rationalisation , unidentified factors.
-figure out the limitations and work for there to develop something
that is functional and kind of fits in the parameters you have? Uhhh
that makes you continue. It is in the and a journey
it makes you go a bit mad polly haha
5. alan Kirby says that post-modernism is dead and buries. There comes
a new paradigm of authority and knowledge formed under the pressure
of new technologies.
But what does some after?
Pseudo-modernism the era that is marked by the use of technology
that has re-shaped the way we communicate, give or receive information,
and ultimately live our lives.
The dominant intellectual framework has changed.

Hence the name pseudo-modernism also connotes the tension


between the sophistication of the technological means, and the
vapidity or ignorance of the content conveyed by it a cultural
moment summed up by the fatuity of the mobile phone users Im on
the bus.
This pseudo-modern world, so frightening and seemingly
uncontrollable, inevitably feeds a desire to return to the infantile
playing with toys which also characterises the pseudo-modern cultural
world. Here, the typical emotional state, radically superseding the
hyper-consciousness of irony, is the trance the state of being
swallowed up by your activity.
By Dr Alan Kirby (brit)
RE:https://philosophynow.org/issues/58/The_Death_of_Postmodernism_A
nd_Beyond
1. modernism
2. adam smith
6. grand narrative: a critical theory, in particular postmodernism, a
meta narrative is an abstract idea that is supposed to be a
comprehensive explanation of historical experience, knowledge.

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