Post Modernism.
Postmodernism can be seen as a reaction against the ideas and values of
modernism, as well as a description of the period that followed modernism's
dominance in cultural theory and practice in the early and middle decades of the
twentieth century. The term is associated with scepticism, irony and philosophical
critiques of the concepts of universal truths and objective reality.
POST-MODERNISM AND MODERNISM
Postmodernism was a reaction against modernism. Modernism was
generally based on idealism and a utopian vision of human life and society
and a belief in progress. It assumed that certain ultimate universal
principles or truths such as those formulated by religion or science could
be used to understand or explain reality. Modernist artists experimented
with form, technique and processes rather than focusing on subjects,
believing they could find a way of purely reflecting the modern world.
THE MANY FACES OF POSTMODERNISM
Anti-authoritarian by nature, postmodernism
refused to recognize the authority of any
single style or definition of what art should
be. It collapsed the distinction between high
culture and mass or popular culture, between
art and everyday life. Because
postmodernism broke the established rules
about style, it introduced a new era of
freedom and a sense that ‘anything goes’.
POSTMODERN PHILOSOPHY
Postmodern philosophy is a philosophical movement that arose in the second
half of the 20th century as a critical response to assumptions in modernist
philosophical ideas regarding culture, identity, history, or language that were
developed during the 18th century Postmodern philosophy questions the
importance of power relationships, personalization, and discourse in the
"construction" of truth and world views. Many postmodernists appear to deny
that an objective reality exists, and appear to moral values.
Jean-François Lyotard defined philosophical postmodernism in The Postmodern
Condition, writing "Simplifying to the extreme, “I define postmodern as
incredulity towards meta narratives...." where what he means
by metanarrative is something like a unified, complete, universal, and
epistemically certain story about everything that is. Postmodernists they reject
the conceptualization of truth that metanarratives presuppose.
Postmodernist philosophers in general argue that truth is always contingent on historical and
social context rather than being absolute and universal and that truth is always partial and "at
issue" rather than being complete and certain.
Postmodern philosophy is often particularly about simple binary oppositions characteristic
of structuralism, emphasizing the problem of the philosopher cleanly distinguishing knowledge
from ignorance, social progress from reversion, dominance from submission, good from bad,
and presence from absence. But, for the same reasons, postmodern philosophy should often be
particularly about the complex spectral characteristics of things, emphasizing the problem of
the philosopher again cleanly distinguishing concepts, for a concept must be understood in the
context of its opposite, such as existence and nothingness, normality and abnormality, speech
and writing, and the like.
Postmodern philosophy also has strong relations with the substantial literature of critical
theory, although some critical theorists such as Jurgen Habermas[9] have opposed postmodern
philosophy.
Postmodern Philosophers
 jean Baudrillard (1929–2007) is difficult to situate in relation to traditional and contemporary
philosophy. His work combines philosophy, social theory, and an idiosyncratic cultural
metaphysics that reflects on key events and phenomena of the epoch.
 Deleuze is a key figure in postmodern French philosophy. Considering himself an empiricist and a
vitalist, his body of work, which rests upon concepts such as multiplicity, constructivism,
difference, and desire, stands at a substantial remove from the main traditions of 20th century
Continental thought.
 Foucault's ideas gave rise in the 1970s and '80s to philosophical postmodernism, a movement
characterized by broad epistemological skepticism and ethical subjectivism, a general suspicion of
reason, and an acute sensitivity to the role of ideology in asserting and maintaining political and
economic power.
What is Postmodernism today?
Postmodernism in film generally ranges from the 1960s to the 2000s. There have been plenty of postmodern film
examples in the 21st century. Films like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Inception both challenged
universal truths related to memory and how we perceive the world around us.
So, is Postmodernism dead? Well, that depends who you ask. Plenty of
films still abide by central Postmodern tenets. It doesn’t seem like
Postmodernism is dead. Instead, it appears as thought in recent years, it
has splintered off into other philosophical concepts. One of the most
substantial of late is the idea of Metamodernism.
You’ve likely heard of a movie or TV show being referred to as
“meta.” That means it abides by core ideas of Metamodernism. At its
core, metamodernism is a mediation between Modernist and
Postmodernist ideals. Take a look at one of the most meta characters
ever created, Abed from Community.
Another philosophical concept to come off the heels of Postmodernism is Posthumanism. While there are many
definitions of this idea, as is the case with most of philosophy, Posthumanism seeks to counter ideas of
Humanism, which emphasizes the value of human beings above all else.
Postmodernism and modern philosophy
Postmodernism is largely a reaction against the intellectual assumptions and values of the modern period in
the history of Western philosophy (roughly, the 17th through the 19th century). The most important of these
viewpoints are the following,
1. There is an objective natural reality, a reality whose existence and properties are logically independent of
human beings—of their minds, their societies, their social practices, or their investigative techniques.
Postmodernists dismiss this idea as a kind of naive realism. Such reality as there is, according to
postmodernists, is a conceptual construct, an artifact of scientific practice and language.
2. The descriptive and explanatory statements of scientists and historians can, in principle, be objectively
true or false. The postmodern denial of this viewpoint—which follows from the rejection of an objective
natural reality—is sometimes expressed by saying that there is no such thing as Truth.
3. Through the use of reason and logic, and with the more specialized tools provided by science and
technology, human beings are likely to change themselves and their societies for the better. It is reasonable
to expect that future societies will be more humane, more just, more enlightened, and more prosperous
than they are now.
4. Reason and logic are universally valid—i.e., their laws are the same for, or apply equally to, any thinker
and any domain of knowledge. For postmodernists, reason and logic too are merely conceptual constructs and
are therefore valid only within the established intellectual traditions in which they are used.
5. There is such a thing as human nature; it consists of faculties, aptitudes, or dispositions that are in some
sense present in human beings at birth rather than learned or instilled through social forces. Postmodernists
insist that all, or nearly all, aspects of human psychology are completely socially determined.
6. Human beings can acquire knowledge about natural reality, and this knowledge can be justified ultimately
on the basis of evidence or principles that are, or can be, known immediately, intuitively, or otherwise with
certainty.
CONCLUSION
Postmodernism in general has taught us that knowledge is contingent; in
an archaeological context, this means that what we say about the past is
conditioned by our own present, including our considered theoretical
stances and our less-considered life courses. Postprocessualists are correct
to remind us that there are many pasts, depending on the beholders and
their contexts. Further adoptions and adaptations of social science theory
by archaeologists, as well as the development of purely archaeologically
based theory, will continue to expand our conceptions of the past, while
reminding us that these are firmly grounded in our own present.
Citation
https://drjodietaylor.com/postmodernism/
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/postmodernism/
https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/what-ispostmodernism-definition/
https://voices.lifeway.com/culture-currentevents/what-is-postmodernism-and-how-does-itaffect-our-culture-today/