Questions tagged [postmodernism]
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Is Kurt Gödel's Incompleteness Theorem a "cheap trick"?
I found a throw-away critique of Kurt Gödel's Incompleteness Theorem in an essay about Deconstruction:
The basic enterprise of contemporary literary criticism is actually quite simple. It is based on ...
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How come nihilism is so popular today?
I've been trying to attack this question (or more precisely, come up with an answer to that fact) for some time now, but after a while of research I'm suddenly not so sure of the reason the situation ...
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What does it mean for a book or a theorist to be "post-modernist" as opposed to "modernist"?
I'd like a succinct comparison of the two "-isms", though I know this is a tall order.
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Why so much hate for postmodernism?
There is a lot of hate for postmodernism on YouTube. Is this hate justified? Or is it just becuase postmodernism makes people uncomfortable. I guess what I am asking is "does postmodernism have any ...
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What is the practical usefulness of post-modernist sociology à la Foucault, e.g. of the insight that "insanity is merely a label applied by society"?
Foucault says what constitutes insanity is a label determined by society. Whether someone is sane or insane is not a clear, objective fact. I do not disagree. He says this labelling can be dangerous.
...
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Are there any books about postmodernism being like sophism?
I still find myself relatively often surprised by how much of the spectrum of philosophic thought was already covered at the times of ancient Greece or ancient China (think Axial Age or think ...
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What are some theories attacking postmodernism preserving objective truth and morality without assuming a God?
From my simplified understanding postmodernism claims ?:
there is no objective truth, only interpretation
there is no objective morality, morality usually represent the interest of the powers that be
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What is postmodernism? [closed]
Postmodernism has always seemed to have a very fuzzy definition to me. It tends to be defined in terms of what it's not, or what it criticizes; for example, it "aims to show that every 'text' is ...
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Is Machiavelli's "The Prince" an immoral book?
Machiavelli's The Prince advocates immoral actions. Does it? The book's major premise is "...all political thinking is guided by a single fact: humanity is lost, bad and ever ready to display their ...
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Why are French postmodern philosophers (like Baudrillard) so hard to read/understand?
I've read my fair share of philosophers. Now I won't say that proper philosophical texts are ever easy to understand, but it seems that French postmodern philosophers like Baudrillard are extremely ...
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Can someone identify this school of thought?
There have been many articles, videos, etc. where I have encountered a philosophy similar to the following, so I'm sure it has a name, I'm just unable to find it and therefore to read up a bit more ...
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Is this criticism of Luce Irigaray's statements on physics accurate?
Wikipedia has this to say about Luce Irigaray
Alan Sokal and Jean Bricmont, in their book critiquing postmodern thought (Fashionable Nonsense, 1997), criticize Luce Irigaray on several grounds. In ...
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Is postmodernism the historical source of epistemic relativism? And does epistemic relativism logically derive from postmodernism?
It seems that epistemic relativism denies the possibility of science per se; because if there are no objective facts then there can be no scientific evidence neither as inductive basis (to be used as ...
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Does the postmodern rejection of "Grand Narratives" have anything to do with "First Principles" argumentation?
I've developed a recent interest in the distinction between "data-driven" argumentation and argumentation in the context of "First Principles", or a priori starting points.
Among the various ...
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Is there a name for gradual dissolution of the boundaries between two objects or identities?
The basis for it is a mathematical principal of a limit, wherein a mathematical object is defined as a value or geometric construct that arises from indefinitely approaching but never actually ...
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Do postmodernists insist that "laws of physics" are "mere social conventions"? Or not anymore?
Alan Sokal once wrote:
Fair enough: anyone who believes that the laws of physics are mere
social conventions is invited to try transgressing those conventions
from the windows of my apartment. (...
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Narrative, what is it?
Most dictionaries define a narrative as telling about consecutive events. However i frequently see in philosophical works and discussions, especially postmodernist ones, the use of this word in such ...
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Does postmodernism entail nihilism?
Postmodernism characterizes mainly as the view that there's no objective truth, no objective moral values, and that logic and reason are socially constructed concepts. These seem to me to be ...
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What are the relations between Neoliberalism and Postmodernism?
The following passage surprised me, not only because it has neoliberals in place of postmodernists, but also because it describes everything I see as a consequence of so-called "Postmodernism" (or ...
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Is there a modernist philosophy?
Let's assume, that it is possible to label some philosophical currents as "postmodernist" and that they have some principles in common. What is modernism then?
I'm asking this because Cody ...
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Mass surveillance and the concealed subject of power
In Spivaks essay, can the Subaltern speak, she states that:
[the] contemporary invocations of the libidinal economy and desire as the determining interest, combined with practical politics of the ...
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Who has linked the analysis of modernism or post modernism to Lacan's four discourses?
Who has linked the analysis of modernism or post modernism to Lacan's four discourses?
I mean obviously there's some kinda link between the master's discourse and at least some forms of modernism. I'...
user6917
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Is postmodernism pessimistic or optimistic?
The way I understand it: Modernism has been associated with optimism, with belief in possibility of progress and improvement, using logic and rationality, for instance. It notices fragmentation but ...
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Does Foucault's "power-knowledge" contradict the scientific method?
I am trying to understand Foucault’s power-knowledge concept.
It seems that Foucault viewed knowledge not as an understanding of an objective reality but a way to exert power? (1)
It seems that one ...
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Why is postmodernism apparently so ill-perceived in philosophy of science?
In the introduction to Massimo Pigliucci's book Philosophy of Pseudoscience: Reconsidering the Demarcation Problem, a collection of essays about the topic, I found the following bit:
(...) we ...
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Why is explaining your work, or guiding your audience such a faux pas to Umberto Eco (postmodern philosopher)?
I've just finished reading "The name of the rose" by Umberto Eco, a postmodern philosopher. At the end of the book he explains that according to him, titles should not be clear. Which is why he chose "...
user2215
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What is the difference between Modernity and Enlightenment?
I know several Enlightenment-era philosophers such as Smith and Locke were responsible for diminishing what Arendt calls "the realm of the political" and then they proceeded to reduce humans ...
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How do structuralism and post-structuralism change the way I read a novel?
I am not from a literature background and have very limited ideas about structuralism and post-structuralism.
From a naive point of view, these ideas say that we can interpret the text as we want ...
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What is the "orthodox" post-modernism?
Can anybody please explain what "orthodox" postmodernism is? Does it mean the most prevalent definition of post-modernism, i.e. what most people understand to be post-modernism?
I encountered it in ...
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Self refuting pillar of postmodernism
One of the defining tenets of posmodernism is "incredulity towards meta narratives". However, with its ubiquitous emphasis on the oppression of power structures and the consequent victim mentality ...
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Metaphysical substrate and the Judeo-Christian legacy
Is the idea of a metaphysical substrate, of stories, meaningful? I have been listening to some talks by Jordan Peterson, and it seems he posits this idea of a metaphysical substrate as counterpoint to ...
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Who should I read to broadly understand contemporary philosophical discourse?
I'm taking ancient philosophy at a public university. I've engaged with the Western canon from the pre-socratics through Aristotle, a number of the medievals and a smattering of modern philosophers ...
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Implication of Rorty's concession to Ramberg that true statements "get things right"?
Richard Rorty (1932-2008) was the paradigmatic deflationist re the concept “truth.” He was an epistemic naturalist and historicist, an instrumental pragmatist, anti-realist/essentialist, and ...
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Is it possible to reconcile post-structuralism with the scientific method?
Post-structuralist thought seems, to me, to be quite hard to argue with as a concept. Clearly, we understand the world through language, which both stems from culture, loading concepts with cultural ...
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How to make sense of philosophical text that might seem like "nonsense" but isn't?
I am reading the work of Jean Baudrillard. Some of his ideas "feels" right: they make sense to me in a weird way, but I can't get deeper because I can't understand most of what I read. Take ...
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Does Sokal & Bricmont's book offer proof of the vacuity of Post-Modernism? Can any schools of Philosophy be proven to be pure Sophistry?
Is Sokal & Bricmont's lambasting of Post-Modern Intellectuals proof of the vacuity of Post-Modernism?
Does this offer us a hope at proving that some schools of Philosophy can be proven to be pure ...
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Is the "blind men and an elephant" illustration self-refuting?
I have periodically encountered the illustration of a group of blind men and an elephant - basically, each man feels a different part of the elephant and concludes that the elephant is a different ...
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What are the benefits of Jean-François Lyotard's "little narratives"?
Jean-François Lyotard's "little narratives", which he explains in The Postmodern Condition, are often criticized for being relative, for destabilizing truth and authority etc. But what are the ...
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What is the consensus on metaphysical innocence of social construction (2N2C)?
What is the consensus about 2N2C? Is there any broad consensus on its truth, or utility?
That's the fun abbreviated title of Boyd's No Non Causal Contribution (double N, double C) thesis, see ...
user25714
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What is a good introduction to structuralism and related fields?
I'm having a hard time to find good learning material for the structuralist school of thought. I try to understand what it is "all" about and how it relates to other schools of thought and scientific ...
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Why magical thinking is still present to this day?
Despite all the bad reputation and hatred to people that have any kind of magical thinking (i.e. believes in magic, any kind), this ideology still very present in society these days, day that seems ...
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Do postmodernists believe in such a thing as fundamental truth?
It's my understanding that postmodern philosophy examines the way in which power and language are used to create discourses around the "truth". What's less clear to me is whether postmodernists ...
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How do modern philosophers oppose relativism?
If my understanding is correct, Plato's theory of forms was developed to counter the relativism of Sophists such as Protagoras. His theory does not seem to have modern followers, as far as I know, yet ...
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What are the relationships between Foucault's medical gaze, scientific investigation, and Buddhist detachment?
From this note from a clinical psychologist, the Foucault's gaze is described as:
... with this powerful gaze the physician could penetrate illusion and see through to the underlying reality, that ...
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Was Jan Smuts the father of Holism?
With reference:
Jan C. Smuts, Holism and Evolution
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Smuts
With what I've found so far it seems he has had an enormous impact on the world that we have, so:
Is ...
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Why Chomsky called postmodernist ideas "absurdities" when related to the "Third World"?
What did Chomsky meant, when referring to the "Third World" in this passage (video, transcription):
It's all very inflated, you know a lot of prestige and so on – it
has a terrible effect in the ...
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What happend to the embracing of a particular schools of philosophy in Universities?
When one always reads the history of philosophy, you really see how different Universities always had a tendency towards a particular school. So my question is, why do you think this sort of past ...
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What exactly does Spivak mean by strategic essentialism?
I'm trying to understand better how to delineate essentialism from strategic essentialism. To me it would seem strategic essentialism is a political or social act of forming a coalition based aroun a ...
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Looking for a book to compliment Zammito and Mohanty in understanding the ethos of post positivistic realism
There are two books which I consider to be indispensable to an understanding of
contemporary western culture’s post-truth/alternative facts (scientific and cultural post modernism/structuralism/...
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Is there a relation between postmodernism and Asian philosophies?
As an Asian, I see that postmodernism and Taoism and Buddhism all share a similar idea: the truth cannot be grasped. Is there any relation between postmodernism and Asian philosophies? Can Laozi and ...
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