Postmodern in Action - Essay Example

Running Head: Postmodern Work Is this postmodern work? of Post-modernism is a theory that has been really popular but is very difficult to define in the milieu of historians, academics and other kinds of intellectuals. This has been due to the fact that this term and concept has many meanings. However they all agree on one point which is that this idea of post-modernism has affected numerous principal areas of life such as art, literature, philosophy and design and architecture and also fields such as business, history, culture and their interpretation.This has been since the 20th century A.D and has caused many conflicts amongst philosophers and intellectuals. Postmodernism is referred to as post because it defies and negates the theory that there exists a set of important values and it needs and requires the theory and believes in the theory of a reality that overrides everything whether spiritual and it’s in a methodical and systematic way. This is a prerequisite for that vital characteristic known as modern intelligence. However, the drawback with the theory is that it. The philosopher Richard Tarnas has claimed that post-modernism could not stand on its own values ultimately if we take out the metaphysical impressions on which it has shaped itself and it takes modernism as a fake reality. Post-modernism is referred to as post-modern because it literally refers to everything after modernity. It deals with the new theories and the new sets that need to be evolved with the passage of time because the requirements of the new century and the challenges posed by this new are completely different from those that were posed by the previous ones. Thus, there is a vital need of new theories and a new set of ideas to prove and solve the problems that we encounter in the new world. The knowledge in the modern societies is signified by the use it has. It’s also different in the way it is collated, gathered, arranged and stored in postmodern society when compared to the modern societies. The use of computers and the role of information technology has increased greatly in the societies of today. It has specially helped in the modes of knowledge that have now changed in terms of distribution and creation and also the way in which it’s used or consumed. For some, post-modernism is synonymous with the start of the computer era that began in 1960s and revolutionized all aspects of modern life and social life. Profile of Artist: Patrick Caulfield…Is He Postmodern? Patrick Caulfield was a British artist who was an important artist of the last 50 years. He mostly deals with the pop artistry like prints and so on. He could be referred to as a postmodern artist because of the characteristics of his art. He was a ‘pop’ artist, the artist of today. Many people could relate to his art, especially the younger population who identified with him and his art. We could call his work postmodern because he deals with the digital themes and so on and so forth. His work is very computerized and digital. Also, he is familiar with the modern themes and talks frequently about them in his art pieces. He is post-modern because he is very 20th century and is after modernity. He is also got a modern appeal with his audiences and admirers. He is also post-modern because he is multi-dimensional and deals with myriad themes and topics. Again, it is a vital characteristic of the post-modern period. He gets abstract at times and direct at others thus allowing a diversity of themes and modes and styles to take over. Here we have an artist of the last past half century who is post-modern as hinted by his work. In a sentence, Patrick Caulfield is the voice of modern art and the illustration below shall graphically tell us the way his work was done and also the various important post-modern characteristics evident in his art. “In postmodern societies, anything which is not able to be translated into a form recognizable and storable by a computer--i.e. anything thats not digitizable--will cease to be knowledge. In this paradigm, the opposite of "knowledge" is not "ignorance," as it is the modern/humanist paradigm, but rather "noise." Anything that doesnt qualify as a kind of knowledge is "noise," is something that is not recognizable as anything within this system”. (http://www.colorado.edu/English/courses/ENGL2012Klages/pomo.html) Post-modernist have theorized that the science consists of two major elements that are epistemological and ideological and both are created on the foundation of bias. This is because that the strong views of humans, anthropology is not a proper science and the prejudices that the human topic contains prohibits science to give the picture of reality. Also, objectivity is a dream because due to the ideological conflicts, differences have de-motivated the females and groups and people of the third world. It also believes in the equality of men and women and denies difference between them. Types of Postmodernism Postmodernism can be categorized in two ways. These are: Skeptical postmodernism Affirmative postmodernism Skeptical postmodernism: This type of post-modernism is very important to the subject of post-modernism itself. Their theme is a kind of linguistic convention of sorts. These postmodernists deny the time factor because for them it’s very strict because it restricts and changes persons. They don’t accept a theory because they believe that theories are abundant and there is no conclusion that is better than the other. Affirmative postmodernism: These post-modernists also deny theory by Affirmatives also refuse. The theory by denial of the argument of the reality. They are in disagreement with the sceptics. They think that theory should not be scrapped but changed. Affirmatives are not that strong on their views than the sceptics. They believe in actions based on calm surroundings and also on the theme of feminism. Description of Postmodernism Postmodernism has no belief in meta-narratives. It has been a theory of the age of internet and television explosion. Therefore it has no potential for reasoning and analytical thinking. They are more inclined towards children relaxing and getting things completed via various channels. Thus, they aren’t used to hard work.They take the children more towards sitting back and relax. They can get every thing done through different mediums, they don’t have to do hard work to achieve goal. They are the providers of all the best tings and everything good also has another side to it. Constructive and Deconstructive Postmodernism The constructive post-modernism does not believe in modernism or does it defies it. It neither tries to retrieve the theories of modernism and also the truth. Deconstructive postmodernism goes against the concept of modernism. Could be fairly referred to as anti-modernism Leading Figures Jean-Francois Lyotard: “The Postmodern would be that which in the modern invokes the unpresentable in presentation itself, that which refuses the consolation of correct forms, refuses the consensus of taste permitting a common experience of nostalgia for the impossible, and inquires into new presentations--not to take pleasure in them, but to better produce the feeling that there is something unpresentable.” (http://www.as.ua.edu/ant/Faculty/murphy/436/pomo.htm) Jean Baudrillard: Baudrillard was a sociologist and thinker who started his career inquiring into the Marxist theories of capitalism. (Sarup 1993: 161) While working he claimed that all , “consumer objects constitute a system of signs that differentiate the population” (Sarup 1993: 162). Ultimately, he came to the conclusion that Marxist theories do not accurately examione commodities properly therefore he constituted the theory of post-modernism. Rousseau has termed Baudrillard a sceptical post-modernist due to the statements he gave like, “everything has already happened.... nothing new can occur, “ or “there is no real world” (Rosenau 1992: 64, 110). He breaks and cuts down modernity and post-modernity in order to explain away the phenomena in the world in a set of models. (http://www.as.ua.edu/ant/Faculty/murphy/436/pomo.htm) Jacques Derrida: He is actually a poststructuralist and is also a post-modernist[sceptical] He talks chiefly about the deconstruction and breaking down of texts and trying to find out meanings and the relationship between them. He writes “a text employs its own stratagems against it, producing a force of dislocation that spreads itself through an entire system.” He vehemently attacked the western understanding of reason and he claims that reason is ruled by the metaphysics of existence. He is in agreement with the views offered by structuralism that signs have no meaning but he also claims that its unreasonable to think that anything that could be reasoned could be used for infinite times. (http://www.as.ua.edu/ant/Faculty/murphy/436/pomo.htm) Michel Foucault: Foucault was a French philosopher and he tried to present the theory that the truths and concepts regarded by human beings as eternal and vital for all the times to come can actually alter with the passage of time. He also debated the concepts of Marx and Freud and told that the daily practices of people shaped their identities and made them organize their knowledge. The study of power and the shifting trends that he conducted is one of he bases of post-modernism. He is regarded as a post-modernist theorist because he challenged the stereotypical understanding of history as a chronology of facts and dates and events. He also talks about history as being under tiers of oppressed knowledge in it and throughout the passage of history. Nancy Scheper-Hughes: She is a professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley. She argues in her work “Primacy of the Ethical" that, "If we cannot begin to think about social institutions and practices in moral or ethical terms, then anthropology strikes me as quite weak and useless." She is a strong proponent of the idea that the ethnographies should be used as tools and means of critical thinking and the freedom of humans because of the fact that ethics and morals enable culture. Culture as it is dictated by ethics could not be bound through culture as it is has been concluded by anthropologists in the past.. (http://www.as.ua.edu/ant/Faculty/murphy/436/pomo.htm) Modernism & Postmodernism A critical differentiation of Modern and Post-modern Thinking   Modern Post-modern Reasoning Linear. From foundation upward Multi-dimensional thinking and reasoning that is web-oriented. Science Far-wide optimism. Realism of Boundaries. Part/Whole The whole is made up by parts. The whole is greater than the parts. God It is operated by defiance of natural laws in every sphere. The causes of Top-Down. Language Gives references. Meaning derived from the social context. (http://private.fuller.edu/~clameter/phd/postmodern.html) Conclusion Intellectuals and academics have thought that post-modernism is an amalgamation of facts that has taken over and replaced the modernism by defying it and borrowing many of its numerous assumptions. Modernism attaches a great deal of significance to the views such as rationality and growth and in other concepts embedded in Illumination and in the movements of Postmodernism’s believers have argued that their concepts have been created as a conclusion of the economic and social situations that include the capitalism and the expansion of transmit media and these events have propelled and ushered the society in a new era. The contemporary philosophers and thinkers regard post-modernism to be a simple period where modernism and other theories co-existed. They don’t regard it as a separate and individual period. They actually believe that post-modernism is a product the circumstances and not of modernism itself. Thus the post-modernism that had ideas was created and there is nothing new that modernism has to offer. People are just imitating each other and media has a very significant role in this entire episode. Globalization has paved the way for new discoveries and numerous progressive episodes. The world has shrunken and we can now know about the lives of people sitting far-off or near. The communication has helped in this regard. Postmodernists don’t see any need for following modernism and accept it as a fake reality which is only. Post-modernism is more practical and worldly accurate because it takes into account the ideas of modernism also. They claim that it’s important that one is not just stylish but one should also care about their actions. Globalization and other things have altered the world and there are new portals of communication and periods. They consider post-modernism to be sophisticated and advanced in comparison with modernism. Modernism, on the other hand, rejects the postmodernist theory. References Postmodernism and Its Critics http://www.as.ua.edu/ant/Faculty/murphy/436/pomo.htm Accessed December 2, 2006 Glossary Definition: Postmodernism www.pbs.org/faithandreason/gengloss/postm-body.html Accessed December 2, 2006 Postmodernism (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy) http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/postmodernism/ Accessed December 2, 2006 Read More