Introduction: Postmodernism and Rationality

Nick Turnbull
Dans Revue internationale de philosophie 2010/1 (n° 251), pages 5 à 7
Éditions De Boeck Supérieur
ISSN 0048-8143
ISBN 9782930560021
DOI 10.3917/rip.251.0005
© De Boeck Supérieur | Téléchargé le 03/09/2023 sur www.cairn.info par Mestefa Belkecir (IP: 41.103.198.155)

© De Boeck Supérieur | Téléchargé le 03/09/2023 sur www.cairn.info par Mestefa Belkecir (IP: 41.103.198.155)

Article disponible en ligne à l’adresse

https://www.cairn.info/revue-internationale-de-philosophie-2010-1-page-5.htm

Découvrir le sommaire de ce numéro, suivre la revue par email, s’abonner...

Flashez ce QR Code pour accéder à la page de ce numéro sur Cairn.info.

Distribution électronique Cairn.info pour De Boeck Supérieur.

La reproduction ou représentation de cet article, notamment par photocopie, n'est autorisée que dans les limites des conditions générales d'utilisation du site ou, le
cas échéant, des conditions générales de la licence souscrite par votre établissement. Toute autre reproduction ou représentation, en tout ou partie, sous quelque
forme et de quelque manière que ce soit, est interdite sauf accord préalable et écrit de l'éditeur, en dehors des cas prévus par la législation en vigueur en France. Il est
précisé que son stockage dans une base de données est également interdit.
 Introduction:
Postmodernism and Rationality

Nick Turnbull

Postmodernism, along with its relative poststructuralism, has been one of

the most influential and controversial ideas of the last few decades. It was
influential in many areas of scholarly inquiry, but particularly in philosophy
and the humanities, in which much energy was spent—often, arguably, in a
wasted effort—by both proponents and detractors engaged in heated arguments
about what it represented, especially in regard to the question of rationality.
For its detractors, postmodernism was an attack on rationality that was to be
© De Boeck Supérieur | Téléchargé le 03/09/2023 sur www.cairn.info par Mestefa Belkecir (IP: 41.103.198.155)

© De Boeck Supérieur | Téléchargé le 03/09/2023 sur www.cairn.info par Mestefa Belkecir (IP: 41.103.198.155)
either cynically dismissed or resoundingly rejected as a corruption of reason,
even immoral. For its supporters, it was a powerful critique of the Western
scholarly tradition, particularly those aspects of rationality said to express
hidden power relations which could not themselves be grounded in anything
rational. Indeed, many of the debates were far from ‘rational’, if by this one
means impassive, most notably the ‘Science Wars’ in which philosophers,
sociologists, and scientists launched sustained assaults upon each intellectual
capabilities.
Postmodernism was nothing if not controversial. Its often esoteric texts and
dramatic pronouncements about rationality, progress, and power—such as
Lyotard’s claim of the ‘end of metanarratives’—sparked major disputes. Argu-
ments about the credibility and morality of postmodernism spread to the wider
public sphere beyond academia, where it was often decried as the corruption
of thought, yet another example of the irrelevance of the humanities and their
declining intellectual standards and obscure jargon. Part of the appeal of post-
modernism, and partly the reason for the odium directed towards it, was its conti-
nental, and particularly, French, influences. Continental philosophy provided a
real alternative in the English-speaking world to the prevailing analytic currents
of philosophy and the social sciences, so it was here that postmodernism found
its largest and most receptive audience, along with its most hostile opponents.
Postmodernism generated reverence among many readers who avidly followed
the works of its major figures. It became a vehicle for career advancement among
junior academics looking for a radical new outlook through which to criticize
the status quo. Critics attacked it for its Continental origins, which they took
 6 Nick Turnbull

as a signifier for florid style and less than rigorous argumentation, such that
it even became colloquially disparaged as ‘French theory’. Now that the heat
from these debates has died down, and postmodernism is passing into history,
we can ask what it all amounted to with a more ‘rational’ eye.
What is the state of rationality today, in light of the postmodern critique? What
legacy has it left for philosophy and the humanities? Postmodernist thinkers
argued that rationality had no firm foundations, and was itself merely one narra-
tive among others. Hence, they presented the Enlightenment not as a common
project of the advancement of knowledge, but as a vehicle of power. For the
(Western) critics of Western thought, postmodernism made a timely attack on
rationality itself, particularly the ideal of social progress. The values upheld as a
triumph of Western thought, including humanism, justice, equality, and science,
were re-cast as oppressive, patriarchal, and even symbolically violent. In the
face of such pointed criticisms, defenders of rational ideals attacked postmod-
© De Boeck Supérieur | Téléchargé le 03/09/2023 sur www.cairn.info par Mestefa Belkecir (IP: 41.103.198.155)

© De Boeck Supérieur | Téléchargé le 03/09/2023 sur www.cairn.info par Mestefa Belkecir (IP: 41.103.198.155)
ernists as morally reprehensible and politically conservative, reactionaries who
rejected the most positive aspects of the Enlightenment project. Postmodern
theorists also made a strident criticism of the university itself as upholding a
vision of rationality primarily to support its own power, along with that of its
state sponsor. Consequently, the arrival of the postmodern critique produced a
great deal of introspection among academics about their own role as knowledge
producers. Difficult epistemological and ethical questions came to the fore in
fields which had not previously been overly bothered by them. Theorizing
became self-reflexive, with all scholarly interpretations being thrown into ques-
tion for their lack of epistemological security, rendering them necessarily partial
and therefore exclusive of other interpretations, such that all knowledge claims
could be described as ‘political’.
While such introspection problematized theory and methodology in the
humanities, in the long run it did not displace the primary research activities
of the disciplines. The controversies surrounding postmodernism have largely
dissipated, along with the more self-flagellating contemplation, assisted by
the inertia in the practical necessity for academics to do research regardless of
the presence of pressing philosophical questions about the basis of rationality.
While much academic research drawing on postmodernism degenerated into
a mire of confused concepts, with less and less clarity achieved over time,
many of the philosophical issues it raised have not been resolved, even if they
have been practically bypassed. In its many guises, postmodernism offered a
powerful critique of rationality which continues to be pertinent in the absence
of any triumphant alternative. The question now is to articulate to what extent
 Introduction: Postmodernism and Rationality 7

rationality has been problematized and which of the remaining questions posed
by postmodernism can be answered.
The articles in this issue present views on postmodernism and rationality from
the English-speaking world. Christopher Norris examines the critique of post-
modernism and the alternative view of rationality put forward in ‘post-analytic’
philosophy, arguing that, despite claims to the contrary, the two broad fields have
much in common, and suffer from similar weaknesses. Barry Hindess deals with
the criticism of postmodernism as bound up in a ‘performative contradiction’,
reviewing in particular the moral dimensions of Habermas’s argument against
Foucault. Nick Turnbull questions the postmodern claim that rationality has
no foundation, defending instead Michel Meyer’s argument for the foundation
of questioning and the rationality of problematology. Craig Browne presents
the case for Castoriadis’s conception of the ‘social imaginary’ as an alterna-
tive and effective response to the postmodern problematization of rationality
© De Boeck Supérieur | Téléchargé le 03/09/2023 sur www.cairn.info par Mestefa Belkecir (IP: 41.103.198.155)

© De Boeck Supérieur | Téléchargé le 03/09/2023 sur www.cairn.info par Mestefa Belkecir (IP: 41.103.198.155)
in social theory. Finally, Steve Fuller considers the epistemological legacies of
postmodernism to be found in the views of both its supporters and opponents,
in particular what it has meant for science and social progress. All the authors
consider what postmodernism has meant for rationality and what is rational
about postmodernism.