7 Answers

  1. Postmodernism is not a specific trend in philosophy, but rather a general cultural attitude associated with the rejection of modernity, i.e., the culture of Modern times. Postmodernists criticize modernity for its essentialism, i.e. belief in objective metaphysical entities, and fundamentally totalitarian character, considering that the direct roots of totalitarianism of the twentieth century were laid in the culture of the XVIII-XIX centuries.

    Thus, the French philosopher M. Foucault in his works analyzes the emergence of modern concepts of psychiatry, prison, and the police – and shows how these institutions, formed in Modern times, changed our society, laying the foundation for totalitarian regimes (for example, punitive psychiatry in the twentieth century will become one of the favorite tools of totalitarian regimes). Fierabend goes even further in this direction and shows science itself as such a tool (greetings to Soviet Marxism – “the only scientific philosophy” – and no less “scientific” racial theories in Nazi Germany), insisting that different models of science should compete in the market of ideas in the same way as, for example, goods compete.

    Postmodernism is a kind of broader field of criticism of modernity, which, in addition to postmodernists, also includes religious fundamentalism. But, unlike the fundamentalists, who criticize the same thing, but as a solution offer to return to the God-saved primitiveness and to the native house-building, postmodernists insist on the need to move on to post-modernity.

    What does this mean in practice? More precisely, what do postmodernists oppose to modernity? This is very clearly seen in Foucault when he considers science, philosophy, or ideology as a set of “grids” of interpretation. All of us, Foucault argues, are created by the society in which we live. Society provides us with a set of “grids” through which we look at reality – starting from the language itself that we use, and ending with scientific theories and ideologies. In this sense, none of them reflects objective reality, but all of them are just systems of interpretation created to solve some problems. This rejection of all existing models in an “objective” way is a characteristic feature of postmodern thinking.

    As postmodernists believed, such an analysis of all possible descriptions of reality as non-absolute, which are only “stories”,” stories ” about reality (narratives), but not reality itself, will help to avoid excessive uncritical attachment to one of them – which would threaten to become a totalitarian and unquestionably true teaching, whether it is a religious, scientific or ideological narrative.

    In summary, postmodernism was a reaction to the objective difficulties that the modern project faced in the first half of the twentieth century. These difficulties include two world wars, the formation of totalitarian regimes, environmental problems, etc. In one way or another, these same problems have preoccupied most twentieth-century philosophers, and the twentieth century has left us with three possible answers:�

    (1) postmodernism – if we believe that modernity has outlived its usefulness, and that we need to abandon “objectivity” in order to create a free society through deconstruction of modern institutions;

    (2) a return to the classic art nouveau project, if we believe that what we have encountered is just mistakes along the way, a departure from the art Nouveau project, or growth difficulties that should be overcome within the framework of the Art Nouveau toolkit itself (for example, in Habermas);

    (3) fundamentalism, a return to the cozy bosom of the pre-modern period, where everything is decided for you – the popularity of Islamic terrorist groups, as well as fundamentalism in other religions, is connected with this promise.

  2. Postmodernism is when you and the boys were playing war games and you died for fun. The meaning of the game is gone, but the process remains and you don't care anymore: voynushka is not voynushka there. You suddenly realized that you can BECOME ANYONE YOU WANT, you can IGNORE THE LAWS OF THE GAME AND PLAY BY ITS OWN RULES, your occupation remains TROLLING your opponents and WANDERING in the space of the game, you CAN'T EVEN EXPLAIN TO THE BOYS WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU, BOYS I'M A POSTHUMAN, YOU KNOW, LIKE THERE IS, AND NOT THERE IS NOT (OR VICE VERSA) I DON'T PUT COMMAS AND WRITE CAPS AMOGUPISATVOOBSHCHEBEZPROBELOV BECAUSE ALL THIS LOGOCENTRISM FOR SUCKERS (HAHA! LOCOCENTRISM!), AND THE TRUTH IS REPRESSIVE AND MADE UP! IT IS NECESSARY TO DISPERSE THE OPPRESSED AND DROWN FOR ANY GAME, BECAUSE HEY! IT'S FUN… But you have a hole inside that you are trying unsuccessfully to fill with memes, because the Second World War and the experience of the repressive culture and history of the XX century ensured the end of humanism and all your hopes.

  3. Direction in culture of the 2nd floor. It rejects the basic principles of modernism and uses elements of various styles and trends of the past, often with an ironic effect.

  4. Of course, I could also start rewriting Wikipedia, but I will try to explain it as much as possible at the everyday level, so that even a fifth-grader can understand (and this is one of the criteria for a good explanation). I propose to consider postmodernism on the example of literature.

    Let's start from afar. Realism lived a long time ago. Its essence was to reflect life and everything that is in it as fully as possible. Aunt Zina, the janitor Lenya, their love relationships, the weather outside the window-everything that makes up the world around us. And the story in a realistic work is presented as if you are very long and beautifully telling something to your friend.

    Read: Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Dickens

    Then realism had a son. His name was modernism. Here everything is more interesting, because the essence of modernism is far from being to convey the surrounding reality as it is. Modernism focuses on the hero's experience. The way the hero experiences events is the measure of the story. We are very deeply immersed in the inner world of the hero, we read 100-200 pages only about what he thinks or thought. In fact, there may be very few events in the novel. Modernism is more like a drunken friend whining in the kitchen and talking about the meaning of life.

    Read: Joyce, Woolf, Fowles, Updike

    And then I worked up the modernism of a careless son who wouldn't even bring a glass. His name is postmodernism. He decided that everything that is dear to modernism is bullshit. Although, you can understand it. Who in our age is interested in another five-hundred-page reflection of some bearded guy? You give fun! Postmodernism plays with genres, styles, borrowing gr everywhere a little bit, doing it not out of secondary importance, but just for fun. Very frequent are the topics of criticism of society, world conspiracy, or just some fierce thrash with space dinosaurs. But postmodernism does not forget about the eternal, just to get to philosophy at the first reading is quite difficult.

    Read: Burroughs, Sorokin, Pelevin, Palahniuk

  5. In art, there is a trend that uses ready-made forms, play and irony in order to get new meanings. At the same time, the methods are mostly traditional. This is the main difference from the avant-garde. An example in literature is the addition of classical works or the borrowing of classical heroes.

  6. About what postmodernism is : in my opinion , at the moment it is impossible to accurately formulate the definition of postmodernism , since we are currently in this period, and in order to understand exactly what it is, you need to analyze it from the beginning to the end, i.e. when it ends . But there are certain features . One of the most important things is citability . An example of postmodern cinema is: Kung Fury, very scary movies and the like . If we talk about more or less serious movies, then this is, for example, “dreamers” or ” I come with rain “, “nymphomaniac” or “shapito show”.

  7. Recently I heard the most understandable, in my opinion, definition of postmodernism. It is about postmodernism “in principle”, although the example that I will give is about painting.

    Artists in their paintings leave us a thought.

    When we look at a canvas, for example, from the Renaissance period , it has everything necessary for us to understand this idea. And not only us, but anyone!

    Postmodernism implies that the viewer has some knowledge. And only in combination with this knowledge, the picture will reveal to us the idea that the artist left behind. And this knowledge is a kind of “pass” to the world of this artist. Those who do not have it, see a yellow square with a red rectangle.

    For example, to properly perceive Warhol, you need to know who Marilyn Monroe is, and what “Campbells”is. For a person abstractly plucked out of the 19th century, it's just a colorful aunt and some banks.

    And finally, think of those two dudes who are in every company, whose jokes are understandable only to the two of them, because they are based on what they did yesterday. And since you weren't with them yesterday, you don't know what they're talking about. Although it seems to be adequate all. Here is an example of this mechanism in real life.

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