Post-modernity/Modernism

• It is another intellectual movement in the later part of the twentieth

century. It marks a point of distinct departure from the modernist
project both in terms of their intellectual foundation and institutional
set-up. The modernist’s claim of ‘the continuous progress’ through
scientific and technological revolution is also challenged by post-
modernism.
• Modernism implies that truth, beauty and morality exist as objective
realities that can be discovered, known and understood through rational
and scientific means. On the contrary, post-modernists argue that truth,
beauty and morality do not have an objective existence beyond how we
think, write or talk about them.
• Social life or social institutions have no fixed forms. They only represent
an ongoing stream of conversations, abstract models, narratives and
various forms of social interaction.
• The prominent proponents of post-modernity are: Jacques Derrida, Jean
Bernard, Leon Foucault, J. Habermas and others.
 Post-modern Analysis of Power
• Post-modernism holds that the structure of ‘privilege’ and ‘power’
pervades the entire social system. It operates in the field of our language as
well as our social life. Post-modernity has its own view on art, literature,
architecture and criticism including literary criticism.
• Its implications in our language have been brought out by Jacques Derrida,
a French philosopher wherein he has outlined his concept of
‘Deconstruction’. Its functioning in our social life has been amply
demonstrated by Michel Foucault, another French philosopher.
• Foucault has argued that political theory and discourse continue to assume a
paradigm of power derived from pre-modern experience. People are now
ruled through social institutions which rise up from the ground and reach
out to people through various social channels. These institutions set up
disciplinary norms and make people conform to the prevailing standards of
reason, order and good taste.
 Rejection of the Grand Narratives/Grand
Theories/ Ideologies
• The post-modernists expressed their rejection of ‘grand theory'
designed to establish wide-ranging, coherent, definitive
theories and interpretations which ideally answer all our
questions. Thus, post-modernity is characterized by the
rejection of ‘grand narratives’, i.e. the major systems of
religious, political and cultural ideas (such as Christianity,
emancipation, capitalism, socialism and technological
progress).
• In the past these ideas had been used to underpin social and
political institutions and practices and intellectual styles. The
various forms of discourse about these ideas had proved to be
incommensurable. Consequently, a consensus which could
serve as an objective basis for conceptions of justice and truth
was not even ideally attainable.
Tall Claims of Modernity Challenged by Post-
modernism
• It asserts that the modernist project of raising intellectual and
institutional set-up have, despite their contrary claims, only resulted
in reinforcing inequality, inequity, exploitation and domination of
common people.
• Post-modernists also view the power of human rationality and its
concomitant scientific and technological revolution with a lot of
suspicion.
• Similarly, champions of post-modern feminism have argued that
feminist movement should not make identical demands for all
categories of women. They have pleaded for due recognition of the
diversity of women’s movements in different parts of the world.
For example, this diversity may arise from awareness of the radical
difference between the conditions of a white professional woman
in a Western country and a poverty-stricken woman in a different
socio-cultural set-up.
 Epistemological Tool of Proponents of
Modernity Questioned
• Questioning the epistemological tool of the proponents of modernity,
the post-modernists challenge the modernist assertion that only
scientific thinking could yield objective knowledge and universal
truth. Instead, they repose their faith in the contigental, contextual
and situational nature of truth.
• The post-modernist perspective on political theory regards the
prevalent norms of truth, beauty and morality as unacceptable
because they simply reflect the mode of thinking of power-holders
in society. Thus, there can be no objective criteria of determining
the nature of truth, beauty and morality.
• It also follows from this that there can not be a singular notion of
modernity or it can not be confined to a particular time scale. There
are pluralist conceptions of the processes of modernity in society
and the concept of ‘modernity’ has been constantly changing. No
particular description of the real can be treated as finally true.
 Concluding Observations
• The running thread that binds modernity and its
discourses- its meaning, philosophical postulates and its
critical analysis as well- together is a multi-causal
explanation identifying its crucial impacts on diverse
aspects of social life.
• In consonance with this perspective it defies any singular
account and explanation of modernity. Similarly the
beginning of modernity is also not attributed to a single
historical time.
• This fact is recognized by many social theorists who lend
credence to unevenness and difference. This has given rise
to a more plural conception of the historical process of
formation of modern societies.
 Concluding Observations (contd.)
• This plural conception lays more stress on varied paths to
development, diverse outcomes, ideas of difference, unevenness,
contradiction and contingency.
• However, it does not mean that historical accounts are the results of
purely random events. But it does imply that in history everything
does not seamlessly unfold according to some internal logic or
inevitable laws.
• Modernity is not monolithic, and it contains many competing
strands. In fact dissatisfaction and alienation from modernity is itself
a characteristically modern pose. Yet it is not directed against its
wholesale rejection.
• The idea of modernity has immense potentiality to cope with ever
emerging challenges. The challenges that surfaced in the last decade
of the twentieth century (post-modernity) are also theorized within
the broader framework of modernity.