I have long had a fair number of friends who identify as “Marxist” or “socialist.” But I freely admit that relatively few of my friends have described themselves to me as “postmodern” or “postmodernist.” Chances are that your experience is much the same. That is, you probably don’t know too many people who identify themselves as “postmodern” or “postmodernist.” But, if we undertake to define what “postmodernism” is, we may find that we have a fair number of friends who fit this description. We may find that postmodern ideas underlie many other belief systems – from transgender ideology and identity politics, to feminism and critical race theory. We may thus find that a fair number of our friends are influenced, in one way or another, by various postmodern ideas. And, if we take the trouble to examine these ideas carefully, we may see that they cannot stand up to serious intellectual scrutiny. Postmodernism is (and remains) intellectually bankrupt. Thus, it may be worth the time to define this philosophy, then to gauge its prevalence, and finally to take the trouble to debunk it. Perhaps, then, we will be better able to arrive at philosophical truth.
Richard Rorty, postmodern philosopher
Definition of “postmodernism,” which believes in relative truth and relative morality
Let me start by trying to define what “postmodernism” is. I should first acknowledge that this word means different things to different people. Even amongst those who have identified as “postmodernists,” there is controversy over exactly what this word might mean – and what it might include. Indeed, the vagueness of the term itself has sometimes been the focus of certain criticisms of postmodernism. No definition will capture what “everyone” has in mind by this, but I would like to capture what I have in mind here. The term “postmodernism” implies a rejection of “modernism.” This is roughly defined as anything from the Age of Enlightenment (basically the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries) to the present day. In the West, the Age of Enlightenment was an age of both science and religion. Postmodernism seems to reject both of these. Stated more metaphorically, it seems to reject both Athens and Jerusalem. It even rejects the idea that there can be “absolute truth” or “objective truth” at all. To postmodernists, all truth is both relative and subjective – a doctrine known as “relativism.” That is, all truth is in the “eye of the beholder.” Socrates debunked these arguments more than 2,000 years ago, as I describe here. I have spent some time debunking this aspect of postmodernism in this same blog post referenced above, so I will not endeavor to do so further here. But I should mention that many postmodernists are also moral relativists. That is, they believe that morality is also in the “eye of the beholder.” To them, this seems a more “tolerant” approach to morality. Indeed, to suggest that any moral action is “wrong” would be “judgmental” and “intolerant,” in their view. Thus, many of them reject the concept of independent value systems, or any judgments based on these values. But saying that independent value systems are “judgmental” or “intolerant” is itself a value judgment. Therefore, they cannot criticize “value judgments” without engaging in them – a self-contradiction that has often been noted by critics of postmodernism. But let me move on to an examination of the origins of postmodernism.
Jean-François Lyotard, sometimes called the father of postmodernism
Postmodernism comes from twentieth-century France, and has roots in Marxism
Postmodernism began in twentieth-century France. Specifically, it began in the 1950s and 1960s. Jean-François Lyotard has sometimes been called “the father of postmodernism.” But it may have been most exemplified in the work of people like Jacques Derrida and Michel Foucault. I have spent some time listening to their ideas, in an audiobook that covered both Derrida and Foucault (more about that here). And it seems to me that the early postmodernists were almost all Marxists. Thus, postmodernism seems to have roots in Marxism. In practice, postmodernists make as many value judgments as the next person. And, when they feel the need for “moral values” to guide their lives, they often return to their Marxist roots for clarification. By this time, communism had long been practiced in Maoist China and the Soviet Union (as I show here). Communism was then suffering some propaganda blows – from the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, to the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961, to “Prague Spring” in 1968. Thus, it was harder for Westerners (like these French intellectuals) to be openly in favor of communism at that time. Thus, some of these Marxists arguably had to re-brand themselves, under the name “postmodernism.” The struggle between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat was turned into a number of other struggles. These included (among other things) the various struggles based on race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, and many other demographic variables. Thus, Marxist class struggle seems to have next been re-branded into various kinds of identity politics, which still live on today. All of these arguments are based on some variation on the theme of “oppressor” versus “oppressed.” Implicit in all of these identity politics is the idea that “victims” can only triumph at the expense of a tyrannical group which is pushing them down. Zero-sum ideas are thus played up to the maximum.
Jacques Derrida, postmodern philosopher
Michel Foucault, postmodern philosopher
Postmodernists reject science, technology, and even logic – but often contradict these beliefs
Postmodernism was (and still is) essentially an offshoot of Marxism. But there was conflict between postmodernist tenets and their Marxist roots. That is, Marxists claim to be “scientific,” and claim to be searching for “objective truth” about economics (and other things). But postmodernists reject objective truth, and some of them even overtly reject science itself. Indeed, science is “just another way of looking at the world,” if you listen to what they say – and is “no more valid” than any other belief system. Indeed, logic itself is seen to be bad – a tool loaded with “Western baggage,” if you listen to some of them. Thus, there is an irony in the fact that most contemporary postmodernists still remain committed Marxists. However, I should acknowledge that the converse does not necessarily hold. That is, not all Marxists today are postmodernists, or would even see themselves as such. Many postmodernists also condemn “technology,” but also lament its “unavailability” to disadvantaged minority groups. And they use modern technology (including the Internet) to broadcast their ideas. If you use a computer (or a lightbulb), you seem to accept the principles upon which that technology is based. You seem to accept that “not just any scientific principles could have produced this technology.” And, thus, a postmodernist technology user would contradict their assertions that the technology is just an “arbitrary social construct.” If they think that it produces more harm than good, then why do they use it, and then lament its “unavailability” to minorities? As the conservative English philosopher Roger Scruton once wrote, “A writer who says that there are no truths, or that all truth is ‘merely relative,’ is asking you not to believe him. So don’t.” I couldn’t agree more.
Roger Scruton, a critic of postmodernism
Why I believe that postmodernism is pervasive in the world today, especially in academia
This postmodern view of things has consequences for literary criticism as well. In the postmodern view, all interpretations of a literary work are “equally valid,” and none of them is seen as being “better” than any other. You might expect that this would produce “less biased grading” in their classes. But, in fact, subjective grading is a necessary (and even unavoidable) hallmark of the humanities disciplines, in which postmodern ideas have gained such a following. Humanities professors seem to be among the most biased graders of all – and I’ve taken several history and philosophy classes in college. Postmodernism also has a following in architecture and the arts (as I show here) – as well as in music, dance, and even urban planning. Nonetheless, postmodernists believe that the natural sciences support their relativist view of things. They point to Einstein’s relativity theory, the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, and modern chaos theory as “evidence” that true knowledge of nature is impossible. These views are especially prevalent among postmodern professors of literature and philosophy – or, in other words, among people in non-natural-science disciplines, who have no knowledge of these natural sciences. But postmodernism has since become prevalent in some of the social sciences, such as sociology and cultural anthropology. And the humanities are filled with postmodern ideas of various sorts, although many followers of these ideas are genuinely unaware of their postmodern origins or nature. The idea that gender is in the “eye of the beholder” (the transgender-ideology view) is an offshoot of this philosophy, which has gained followers outside of academia today. The identity-politics aspects of postmodernism are prevalent in feminism, multiculturalism, postcolonialism, and even critical race theory. If you believe in these things, you’re probably a postmodernist – even if you had never heard of this term before reading this post. And, if you know someone who believes in any of these things, then you know people who are “postmodernists” – showing their true prevalence in contemporary society.
Douglas Kellner, postmodern philosopher
Postmodern beliefs are a recipe for depression, and can be hard on those who hold them
I noted earlier that many postmodernists reject the concept of independent value systems, or any judgments based on these values. For some of them, this rejection seems to lead them to the nihilistic belief that “life itself” has no value, and certainly has no meaning. This sounds to me like a recipe for depression. Wikipedia says that “In opposition to modernism's alleged self-seriousness, postmodernism is characterized by its playful use of irony and pastiche, among other features.” (Source: Their page on “Postmodernism”) But my experience with postmodernists tends to be the opposite – namely, that they end up profoundly depressed. The way out of this depression is to embrace some kind of values – almost any kind of values. Of course, postmodernists make value judgments as much as the next person, but they contradict one of their foundational assumptions when they do so – namely, that value judgments are necessarily bad. Thus, they have to choose between being inconsistent and being depressed. Again, the answer to this depression seems to be to embrace some kind of values, and to embrace the concept of objective truth. Some things in life really are subjective, but others are objective, and stubbornly refuse to bend to anyone’s will. The law of gravity doesn’t care whether we believe in it or not. It pulls us towards the ground, even if we openly reject that this law exists. Good medicines can still help us, and poisons can still kill us, even if we convince ourselves that the opposite is true. Many postmodernists still turn to scientific medicine today, contradicting their anti-science and anti-technology views of the world. Apparently, it’s a hard thing to be a postmodernist today.
Richard Dawkins, a prominent critic of postmodernism
Conclusion: In so many ways, postmodernism and its offshoots are profoundly confused
This is why I believe that it’s better to avoid the profound confusion of postmodernism. This is why I believe that it’s more prevalent than you might think, and ultimately needs to be debunked. And this is why you should be concerned about postmodernism, and its ever-growing influence upon the public mind. Succumbing to postmodernism means abandoning logic, consistency, and (in some cases) even happiness. Rejecting postmodernism allows you to be logical, consistent, and far happier than you would be as a postmodernist. There are far better ways of seeing the world.
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