postmodernism

• postmodernism - an intellectual movement that suggests we live in a new era that is unstable, fragmented and media-saturated where we are defined by what we consume
• knowledge

  foucault - there are no objective criteria to knowledge that can prove a theory true or false, which has two consequences

  • the enlightenment project if achieving progress through true scientific knowledge is dead
  • any theory that claims to have the truth is a meta-narrative

  they hold a relativist position suggesting that all views are true for those who hold them, so we should celebrate the diversity of views rather than seeking to impose one version of the truth

  • lyotard - knowledge is a series of different ways if seeing the world
• simulacra

  baudrillard - knowledge is central to postmodern society but in the form of images and signs, and society is no longer based on the production of material goods but buying and selling

  • signs (simulacra) stand for nothing other than themselves
  • hyper-reality - the signs appear more real than reality itself and so is able to substitute for reality, but the signs are completely meaningless
  • is particularly critical of tv as it is the main source of simulacra and our inability to distinguish between reality and image eg. tabloids publishing articles about soap opera characters
• culture, identity and politics

  baulliard - in postmodern society the media are all pervading and produce an endless stream of changing versions of the truth, so culture is fragmented and unstable and there is no fixed set of values shared by members of society

  • different messages undermines people's faith in meta-narratives, so people fail to believe in any one version
  • identity is constructed by consumption of products and lifestyles so structural factors have less influence over our identities
• the postmodern condition

  baudrillard - pessimistic about the postmodern condition as we are unable to distinguish between image and reality so we have lost the power to improve society

  • we have no idea what reality is so we have no ability to change it
  • political activity to improve the world is impossible so the central goal of the enlightenment project is unachievable
• marxist evaluation of postmodernism


  philo + miller ~

  • ignores power and inequality eg. the ruling class using the media as a tool for indoctrination
  • ignores the effect of poverty in restricting opportunities to freely construct identities
  • postmodernists are wrong to claim that people can't distinguish between reality and media image
  • by assuming all views are equally true in becomes as easy to deny the atrocities of the nazi party as it does to affirm the truth, which is extremely morally incorrect
• evaluation

  • lyotard's theory is self-defeating as we have no reason to believe a theory that states no theory holds the truth
  • best + kellner - postmodernism fails to explain how the features of society it mentions came about
  • harvey - rejects the pessimistic view surrounding the enlightenment project as political choices do make a real difference, and theories can find an approximation to the truth if not the absolute
  • other societies eg. late modernity and marxist theories of postmodernity may be more comprehensive