Postmodernism

[Matt the Poet]

Real life intervenes. I've got to go. I'll try to be back, having tackled the Heidegger...

 

[blobru]

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My graduate level rhetorical theory teacher was redefining post-modernism to make it fall in a continuum with positivist/interpretive/critical theory so her definition of postmodernism was "There is no truth. There is no way to find the truth and wouldn't be even if there was truth. There's no right and wrong involved and there's nothing we can do to figure it out or communicate it" [my u_line]
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That's always struck me as kind of interesting though. Just as logical positivism and the dictum "scientific logic is the only valid mode and 'science' the only proper subject of philosophy" was dying down on one side of the English Channel, on the other up rises "everything but scientific logic are valid modes and science or anything else is a proper subject for philosophy" as the motto of postmodernism. Not sure there's any cause-and-effect there -- maybe lopo influenced by early, pomo by later, Wittgenstein -- but a good name for pomo might be "anti-lopo", or "alogical negativism". Each certainly led to some bombastic extremes, from the lopo's throwing out ethics to the pomo's inviting in dada. Seems whenever any movement tries to come up with a definition for philosophy beyond "clear thinking", zaniness is bound to ensue.

 

[quixotecoyote]

That's always struck me as kind of interesting though. Just as logical positivism and the dictum "scientific logic is the only valid mode and 'science' the only proper subject of philosophy" was dying down on one side of the English Channel, on the other up rises "everything but scientific logic are valid modes and science or anything else is a proper subject for philosophy" as the motto of postmodernism. Not sure there's any cause-and-effect there -- maybe lopo influenced by early, pomo by later, Wittgenstein -- but a good name for pomo might be "anti-lopo", or "alogical negativism". Each certainly led to some bombastic extremes, from the lopo's throwing out ethics to the pomo's inviting in dada. Seems whenever any movement tries to come up with a definition for philosophy beyond "clear thinking", zaniness is bound to ensue.

True. I plan to see how much **** I can stir up by vigorously defending positivism.