Postmodernism
The word "postmodernism" means many things to many people. To some it describes a fad or a personal style, to others, a theory of society, a philosophy of human significance (or its lack thereof), a historical epoch, a phase of capitalist development, or a curious feeling of personal weightlessness in a world of synthetic pleasures and meanings. Unlike most "isms," postmodernism has no stock tenets or creeds to fall back on, relying instead on a general attitude of misgiving for all things "modern." The foundational assumptions that undergird modern personal and social beliefs, even the belief in "reality" itself, are, for postmodernists, canon fodder in a relentless "ungrounding" assault waged on modernity. This essay will assess the relevance and achievements of the postmodern critical enterprise (which are significant), while exercising a healthy skepticism about some of postmodernism's more lofty assertions. Postmodernism will be understood for what it is—a product of an academic "idea" industry, meant to describe an awkward period in the history ofwestern society. In this way, postmodernism, the academic fad, will be explained via the use of postmodernism, the critical "ungrounding" of cultural assumptions and beliefs.
To call postmodernism an intellectual fad is neither disparaging nor inaccurate: all cultures are subject to fads, and intellectuals, as any postmodernist would assure you, are no exception.
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