Postmodernism

Postmodernism is a controversial and confusing term that was first used to describe experimental movements in Western architecture and cultural development in general. Postmodern thought originated principally in continental Europe, especially France, and constitutes a challenge to the type of academic political theory that has come to be the norm in the Anglo-American world. Since the 1970s, however, postmodern and poststructural political theories have become increasingly fashionable. Their basis lies in a perceived social shift – from modernity to postmodernity – and a related cultural and intellectual shift – from modernism to postmodernism. Modern societies were seen to be structured by industrialization and class solidarity, social identity being largely determined by one’s position within the productive system. Postmodern societies, on the other hand, are increasingly fragmented and pluralistic ‘information’ societies in which individuals are transformed from producers to consumers, and individualism replaces class, religious and ethnic loyalties. Postmodernity is thus linked to postindus-trialism, the development of a society no longer dependent upon manufactur-ing industry, but more reliant upon knowledge and communication.

Modernism, the cultural form of modernity, stemmed largely from Enlightenment ideas and theories, and was expressed politically in ideological traditions that offered rival conceptions of the good life. Liberalism and Marxism are its clearest examples. Modernist thought is characterized by foundationalism – the belief that it is possible to establish objective truths and universal values, usually associated with a strong faith in progress. By contrast, the central theme of postmodernism is that there is no such thing as certainty: the idea of absolute and universal truth must be discarded as an arrogant pretence. Although by its nature postmodernism does not constitute a unified body of thought, its critical attitude to truth-claims stems from the assumption that all knowledge is partial and local, a view it shares with some communitarian thinkers. Poststructur-alism, a term sometimes used interchangeably with postmodernism, emphasizes that all ideas and concepts are expressed in language which itself is enmeshed in complex relations of power. Political theory, then, does not stand above power relations and bestow dispassionate understanding; it is an intrinsic part of the power relations it claims to analyse.

Postmodernist thought has been criticized from two angles. In the first place, it has been accused of relativism, in that it holds that different modes of knowing are equally valid and thus rejects the idea that even science is able reliably to distinguish between truth and falsehood. Secondly, it has been charged with conservatism, on the grounds that a non-foundationalist political stance offers no perspective from which the existing order may be criticized and no basis for the construction of an alternative social order. Nevertheless, the attraction of postmodern theory is its remorseless questioning of apparently solid realities and accepted beliefs. Its general emphasis upon discourse, debate and democracy reflects the fact that to reject hierarchies of ideas is also to reject any political and social hierarchies.

Key Figures

Friedrich Nietzsche A German philosopher, Nietzsche is invariably regarded as the most important precursor of postmodernism. His work stresses the importance of will, especially the ‘will to power’, and emphasizes that people create their own world and make their own values. This is most memorably expressed in the assertion that ‘God is dead’. Nietzsche’s nihilism, the rejection of all moral and political principles, encouraged later postmodern theorists to regard truth as a fiction and to link beliefs and values to the assertion of power.

Martin Heidegger (1889–1976) A German philosopher, Heidegger, also a precursor of postmodernism, had a considerable impact upon the development of phenomenology and existentialism. Fundamental to his philosophical system was the question of the meaning of Being, by which he meant self-conscious existence. All previous political philosophies had made the mistake of starting out from a conception of human nature rather than recognizing the ‘human essence’ as a ‘realm of disclosure’. This had led to the dominance of technology over human existence, from which, Heidegger believed, humans could escape by developing a more receptive relationship to Being. Heidegger’s most famous work is Being and Time (1927).

Jean-Franc¸ois Lyotard (1924– ) A French philosopher, Lyotard was primarily responsible for popularizing the term postmodern and for giving it its most succinct definition: ‘An incredulity towards metanarratives.’ By this he meant a scepticism about all creeds and ideologies that are based upon universal theories of history which view society as a coherent totality. This stems from science’s loss of authority as it has fragmented into a number of forms of discourse and as ‘performativity’, or efficiency, has displaced truth as its standard of value. Lyotard’s post-Marxism also reflects his belief that communism has been eliminated as an alternative to liberal capitalism. His most important work is The Postmodern Condition (1979).

Michel Foucault A French philosopher, Foucault was primarily concerned with forms of knowledge and the construction of the human subject. His early work analysed different branches of knowledge as ‘archaeologies’, leading to an emphasis upon discourse, or ‘discursive formation’. Central to this was his belief that knowledge is deeply enmeshed in power, truth always being a social construct, and that power can be productive as well as prohibitive.

Jacques Derrida (1930– ) A French philosopher, Derrida is the main proponent of deconstruction, although it is a term he is reluctant to use. Deconstruction (sometimes used interchangeably with poststructuralism) is the task of raising questions about the ‘texts’ that constitute cultural life, exposing complications and contradictions of which their ‘authors’ are not fully conscious and for which they are not fully responsible. Derrida’s concept of ‘difference’ rejects the idea that there are fixed differences in language and allows for a constant sliding between meanings in that there are no polar opposites. His major works include Writing and Difference (1967), Margins of Philosophy (1972) and Spectres of Marx (1993).

Richard Rorty (1931– ) A US philosopher, Rorty has focused increasingly upon political issues, having established his reputation in the analysis of language and mind. His early work rejected the idea that there is an objective, transcendental standpoint from which beliefs can be judged, leading to the conclusion that philosophy itself should be understood as nothing more than a conversation. Nevertheless, he supports a pragmatic brand of liberalism that overlaps at times with social democracy, for which reason he has reservations about some of the relativist trends in postmodernism. Rorty’s best-known works include Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature (1979), Consequences of Pragmatism (1982) and Contingency, Irony and Solidarity (1989).

Further Reading

Anderson, P. The Origins of Postmodernism. London: Verso, 1998.

Butler, C. Postmodernism: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press, 2002.

Lyon, D. Postmodernity. Milton Keynes: Open University Press, 1994.