¿Qué es el posmodernismo?

Since this philosophical movement has become very popular these days on social media, I have found it necessary to write this note to explain what postmodernism really is; since I often notice that many people use the adjective “postmo” as a synonym for “progressive” or “chairo”, when they are not (although I do not mean to say that they are exclusive), or that being postmodern is unique to atheism, which is totally false.

Addressing the topic of postmodernism would require more than a few simple pages, so this writing will be to clarify in a simple and brief way what postmodernism represents in a very general way.

First, postmodernism covers not only the philosophical movement that followed modernism, but also cultural, artistic and literary movements. So keep in mind that the whole thing on social media is about philosophical ideology; so as not to think that when someone criticizes a “postmo” they are referring to some artist or literary person (although this may well be the case, but usually it is the philosopher).

Second, postmodernism covers a multitude of theses (or antitheses, depending on the case), so always keep in mind that one postmodern is not identical to another postmodern, nor does one hold each and every one of the positions we will see below, so it is important that when you come across a postmodern you first ask why he holds that position, what his specific points of view are.

Third. In general, postmodernism, as a philosophical movement, is above all an epistemic reinterpretation; that is, of what knowledge is and what counts as knowledge. Postmodernism goes beyond the issue of gender ideology, which is the most well-known topic of debate, but rather a cultural relativism about reality, truth, reason, value, linguistic meaning, logic, sameness, among other notions. The main exponents of postmodernism; the best known are Friedrich Nietzsche, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Jacques Derrida, Martin Heidegger, among others.

That said, let’s look at the most common philosophical positions held by postmodernism.

Metaphysical anti-realism. Postmodernism rejects the existence of language-independent reality, the reality of the external world, and the application of the laws of logic to reality. In other words you already know, “it’s a social construct,” the old reliable of postmodernism.

Rejection of theories of truth. “There is no such thing as objective truth.” “There are no absolute truths.” You’ve heard that, right? Well, that’s also postmodern. The reason? “It’s a social construct.”

Epistemic subjectivity: Since for postmodernists knowledge is a social construction and not an objective and justified representation of the reality of our mental states, it follows that there is no position from which knowledge itself can be defined without resorting to begging the question.

Anti-essentialism. Essentialism, in simple terms, is the position that some entities have both essential and accidental properties. An essential property is one that if the object were to cease to possess, it would cease to be what it is. For example, being an animal is a property of a cow. Accidental properties are ones that if the object in question were to cease to possess them, it would still be what it is. For example, the dog Snoopy has the accidental property of having white fur and black ears. If Snoopy were entirely brown instead of white with black ears, Snoopy would still be a dog. According to postmodernists, there is no objective distinction between essential and accidental properties, but rather they are relative to our own criteria of classification. At this point you will have noticed those who currently reject essentialism: the gender ideologues. For example, since there is no objective difference between the essential properties that make a man a man and a woman a woman, gender ideologists use this to impose their ideology that any person can be whatever they want.

Subjective meaning of language and thought. First, postmodernists reject the idea that language objects have authorial meaning, depriving the author of interpreting his own work. Second, they claim that thought cannot exist without language and that thought is nothing more than linguistic behavior relative to social groups.

Anti-metanarratives. A metanarrative is either a procedure for determining which conceptual scheme/worldview is true/rational or a reference to worldviews that have come to be accepted by large groups of people, such as atheism or Christianity, among others. By stating that there are no metanarratives, it follows that there is no way to decide which worldview is true or that any worldview is true.

There are other positions that are held by postmodernists, but those mentioned in this note are the most common and the most mentioned in the current social controversy. Therefore, it must be taken into account that although one can make fun of postmodern positions, these are reinterpretations of very deep philosophical positions that are topics of serious study for disciplines such as epistemology, axiology, metaphysics, philosophy of language, etc. Therefore, I invite the reader to dedicate time to study some article on these topics in question.

I also want to point out that postmodernism is not an ideology exclusive to atheism. There are currently theistic philosophers who share one or more of these postmodern positions with certain variations given their commitment to theism. For example, the Christian philosopher Alfonso Ropero maintains that there are no absolute truths, and that if they did exist, they could only be known by God.

Much more could be said about postmodernism, so I will leave a few resources at the end of the note so that the interested reader can delve deeper into the subject in question.

References

“Theories of Truth and Postmodernism” by JP Moreland and WL Craig in Philosophical Foundations for a Christian Worldview .

“Modernism and Postmodernism”. See:   http://www.monografias.com/trabajos/modypostmod/modypostmod.shtml (Accessed 30/Dec/2016).

“Do We Live in a Postmodern Society?” See:  http://www.reasonablefaith.org/spanish/vivimos-en-una-sociedad-postmoderna (Accessed 30/Dec/2016).

“Sexuality and Gender: Conclusions from Biology, Psychology and the Social Sciences” See: http://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/preface (Accessed 12/30/2016).

Recommended resources in Spanish:

Stealing from God ( Paperback ), ( Teacher Study Guide ), and ( Student Study Guide ) by Dr. Frank Turek

Why I Don’t Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist ( Complete DVD Series ), ( Teacher’s Workbook ), and ( Student’s Handbook ) by Dr. Frank Turek

Jairo Izquierdo is a member of the Social Media team and an author for the Christian organization Cross Examined . He studies philosophy and theology, with his current focus being classical logic, epistemology, Christian doctrines, and philosophy of language. He is co-founder of Filósofo Cristiano . He is a member of the Christian Apologetics Alliance and a worship director at the Christian Baptist church Cristo es la Respuesta in Puebla, Mexico.