What is Postmodernism?

A POSTMODERN JOKE What do you get when you cross a Deconstructionist with a Mafioso? An offer you can’t understand

What is Postmodernism? Postmodernism begins as a movement in art and architecture. The term “postmodernism” first entered the philosophical lexicon in 1979, with the publication of The Postmodern Condition by Jean-François Lyotard. Lyotard: “Simplifying to the extreme, I define postmodern as incredulity towards matanarratives.”

Equivalent VIII Carl Andre (b.1935) Tate Gallery, bricks arranged in two layers in 6 x 10 rectangle All eight structures in the series have the same height, mass and volume, but different shapes. Thus they are all "equivalent".

Is it Art? Plato holds in the Republic and elsewhere that the arts are representational, or mimetic (sometimes translated “imitative”). They are attempts, albeit unsuccessful ones, to instantiate the ideal form of Beauty, Kant defines art as “a kind of representation that is purposive in itself and, though without an end, nevertheless promotes the cultivation of the mental powers for sociable communication.” (Kant, Critique of Judgment, Guyer)

Is it Art?

A modern definition (1) An artist is a person who participates with understanding in the making of a work of art. (2) A work of art is an artifact of a kind created to be presented to an artworld public. (3) A public is a set of persons the members of which are prepared in some degree to understand an object which is presented to them. (4) The artworld is the totality of all artworld systems. (5) An artworld system is a framework for the presentation of a work of art by an artist to an artworld public. (Dickie, 1984)

DEFINITION 1 A late twentieth century style and concept in the arts, architecture and criticism that represents a departure from modernism and has at its heart a general distrust of grand theories and ideologies as well as a problematical relationship with any notion of art. (Oxford American Dictionary)

DEFINITION 2 Postmodernism is largely a reaction to the assumed certainty of scientific, or objective, efforts to explain reality. In essence, it stems from a recognition that reality is not simply mirrored in human understanding of it, but rather, is constructed as the mind tries to understand its own particular and personal reality. For this reason, postmodernism is highly skeptical of explanations which claim to be valid for all groups, cultures, traditions, or races, and instead focuses on the relative truths of each person. (pbs.org)

DEFINITION 3 “ One of the best way of describing postmodernism as a philosophical movement would be as a form of scepticism—scepticism about authority, received wisdom, cultural and political norms—and that puts it into a long- running tradition in Western thought that stretches back to Greek philosophy. (The Routledge Companion to Postmodernism)

DEFINITION 4 Anti-essentialism There is no natural or universal essence to human beings [involves a rejection of Aristotelian tradition]. In literature, this implies you will not read literature for great truths about the human condition Anti-realism Scientific Realism:There exist a real physical reality that science can discover and know Ethical Realism:There exists a moral reality that reason can discover Anti-foundationalism Knowledge rests on no reliable foundation Known in philosophy as the problem of the criterion