Worldviews and Postmodernism

Several people in class expressed concern that they did not understand the idea(s) of postmodernism (aka PoMo). This is to be expected since we have not had much opportunity to cover these ideas in depth. Please be patient with the class because we will cover PoMo in greater detail toward the end of the course.

In brief, because postmodernists do not want to say there is an essence to anything, most postmodernists disagree with any transcendent ideas--those that are "true forever and always"--and strongly oppose any "metanarrative"--i.e., any way of viewing or talking about the world that claims to be true-for-all-times like Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Marxism, and other all encompassing "isms." Many postmodernists focus on language because they believe that language can "change the world." Thus, the trend against any "sexist language" that talks about "mail men" or "chairman" or other such words that eliminates the "generic 'he'or 'him.'" They also emphasize pluralism and tolerance as the only way to engage ideas or people or cultures. The problem with this is that it eliminates the possibility of knowing Truth (capital T)and assumes that anything that can be known is only a "small t" truth that is limited in time, context, and to a particular social group.

See what you think about the ideas from the ancient Greek sophists and the debates between the Greek philosophers and the sophists. You might find some interesting similarities.