In order to understand Postmodernism, we first have to understand what Modernism is.
Modernism is a kind of umbrella term used to describe the quite radical changes in sociopolitical, philosophical and scientific concepts in the western world, which started in the 18th century, and which then eventually pretty much expanded to much of the rest of the world.
The philosophical and scientific aspect of this zeitgeist started with the so-called Age of Enlightenment in the 17th and 18th centuries. Prior to this time, religion, philosophy and science were all considered pretty much parts of the same thing, tightly tied to each other. The approach to science was highly presuppositionalist (heavily driven by the religious and philosophical ideas of the time, with any scientific theories being controlled by these presuppositions).
The Age of Enlightenment, however, caused a massive change in the philosophy of science. It was the time when the modern scientific method was developed. Religious and philosophical presuppositionalism was discarded, and replaced with evidence-based and fact-based methodology. (In other words, the direction of scientific research was effectively reversed: Rather than assume a conclusion and trying to corroborate that conclusion with research and testing, instead the research and testing is done first, and then the conclusion follows from that, without prejudice and presupposition.) This philosophy of science developed modern scientific skepticism: No claim is accepted without sufficient valid evidence, and all claims must be based on facts and actual measurable and repeatedly testable and falsifiable evidence. This was in drastic contrast with prior centuries, where religious presuppositionalism was rampant, and scientific rigor was almost non-existent.
This caused an inevitable and pretty much total separation between science and religion, and, also, pretty much effectively a split in philosophy. Where previously religion, philosophy and science were considered just aspects of the same thing, now they were completely separate.
On the sociopolitical side Modernism refers to the ever increasing animosity within the general public against royalty, nobility, and overall any form of governance that was inherited, elitistic, aristocratic, and oligarchic. The culmination of this unrest was the French Revolution at the end of the 18th century, where the rule of the absolute monarchy in France was replaced by a republican government.
This revolution was extremely significant in world history because it triggered the global decline of absolute monarchies in the west, and eventually pretty much the entirety of the world, replacing them with democratic governments, where the government is elected by the people, from among the people, rather than it being owned by an oligarchy by birthright. While royalty and nobility still exist in many countries even today, they (especially the latter) do not hold any significant power, and are mostly nominal and customary.
On a perhaps more abstract level, some of the fundamental characteristics of Modernism are objectivity, (scientific) skepticism, equality, and meritocracy. The world and human society is judged by facts and hard testable evidence, morality and legislation is sought to be as objective as possible, people are treated as equally as possible, and societal success ought to be based on personal work and merit rather than birthright and class. This is the era of science, technology, universal human rights, democracy, and the modern judicial system.
Postmodernism, on the other hand, is a much fuzzier and harder to define concept. And, in my opinion, almost completely insane.
One of the driving ideas behind postmodernism is the concept of subjective truth, and to a degree, a rejection of objectivity and science. Postmodernism is often summarized as "all truth is relative".
The notion of subjective reality in postmodernism can range from the absolutely insane (and therefore innocuous, as it has no danger of affecting society) to the more down-to-earth mundane things (which, conversely, can be a lot more dangerous in this sense).
The most extreme (and therefore most innocuous) form of this is the notion that some people have that the universe, the actual reality we live in, is personal and subjective. We make our own reality. If we think hard enough about something happening, it has a higher chance of happening, because we shape our own reality, our own existence, with our minds. Evidence-based science is rejected as antiquated and closed-minded.
That kind of philosophy is not very scary because nobody takes it seriously. Especially not anybody with any sort of power to impose it onto others and, for example, create legislation based on it.
However, there are other forms of postmodernist notions that are much more dangerous and virulent. Perhaps no other example is better and more prominent than the postmodernist idea of human gender.
In modernism, gender is defined by what can be measured and tested. It's a cold and hard scientific fact. We can take samples and put machines to inspect them, and see what the samples consist of. We can observe and measure the human body, its biology and its functionality. Everything can be rigorously observed, measured and tested.
In postmodernism, however, gender is defined by the subjective feelings of the person. Not only is the gender of the person not measurable by any machine, moreover there aren't even two genders, but however many each person wants there to be. People can freely make up new genders for themselves as they see fit and feel like. It doesn't matter what the test tubes and machines say, all that matters is what the person says and feels.
The very concept of "gender" cannot be scientifically stated, based on measurements, facts and testable evidence. Science is completely rejected in this (unless it is twisted for political purposes to support the notion).
Unlike the first extreme example of postmodernism earlier, this one is much scarier because it has much more influence in the actual world. It has much more influence, in a much, much wider scale, on how people behave and, perhaps most importantly, what kind of legislation is enacted, and how eg. schoolchildren are taught and treated. Nobody in their right mind would demand that schoolchildren be taught that the universe itself is shaped by whatever we think and want. However, schoolchildren at many places are already been taught that they can create their own genders as they wish, and to completely disregard science on this matter.
The really scary thing about it is how virulent the idea is. School after school, university after university, and government after government is embracing this form of postmodernism, and some countries are already enacting laws to enforce it. And there seems to be nothing to stop the insanity from spreading.
As mentioned, the concept of gender is but just one egregious example of postmodernism. There are many others. And they are getting more and more a hold in our society, undermining factual objective science.
Modernism is a kind of umbrella term used to describe the quite radical changes in sociopolitical, philosophical and scientific concepts in the western world, which started in the 18th century, and which then eventually pretty much expanded to much of the rest of the world.
The philosophical and scientific aspect of this zeitgeist started with the so-called Age of Enlightenment in the 17th and 18th centuries. Prior to this time, religion, philosophy and science were all considered pretty much parts of the same thing, tightly tied to each other. The approach to science was highly presuppositionalist (heavily driven by the religious and philosophical ideas of the time, with any scientific theories being controlled by these presuppositions).
The Age of Enlightenment, however, caused a massive change in the philosophy of science. It was the time when the modern scientific method was developed. Religious and philosophical presuppositionalism was discarded, and replaced with evidence-based and fact-based methodology. (In other words, the direction of scientific research was effectively reversed: Rather than assume a conclusion and trying to corroborate that conclusion with research and testing, instead the research and testing is done first, and then the conclusion follows from that, without prejudice and presupposition.) This philosophy of science developed modern scientific skepticism: No claim is accepted without sufficient valid evidence, and all claims must be based on facts and actual measurable and repeatedly testable and falsifiable evidence. This was in drastic contrast with prior centuries, where religious presuppositionalism was rampant, and scientific rigor was almost non-existent.
This caused an inevitable and pretty much total separation between science and religion, and, also, pretty much effectively a split in philosophy. Where previously religion, philosophy and science were considered just aspects of the same thing, now they were completely separate.
On the sociopolitical side Modernism refers to the ever increasing animosity within the general public against royalty, nobility, and overall any form of governance that was inherited, elitistic, aristocratic, and oligarchic. The culmination of this unrest was the French Revolution at the end of the 18th century, where the rule of the absolute monarchy in France was replaced by a republican government.
This revolution was extremely significant in world history because it triggered the global decline of absolute monarchies in the west, and eventually pretty much the entirety of the world, replacing them with democratic governments, where the government is elected by the people, from among the people, rather than it being owned by an oligarchy by birthright. While royalty and nobility still exist in many countries even today, they (especially the latter) do not hold any significant power, and are mostly nominal and customary.
On a perhaps more abstract level, some of the fundamental characteristics of Modernism are objectivity, (scientific) skepticism, equality, and meritocracy. The world and human society is judged by facts and hard testable evidence, morality and legislation is sought to be as objective as possible, people are treated as equally as possible, and societal success ought to be based on personal work and merit rather than birthright and class. This is the era of science, technology, universal human rights, democracy, and the modern judicial system.
Postmodernism, on the other hand, is a much fuzzier and harder to define concept. And, in my opinion, almost completely insane.
One of the driving ideas behind postmodernism is the concept of subjective truth, and to a degree, a rejection of objectivity and science. Postmodernism is often summarized as "all truth is relative".
The notion of subjective reality in postmodernism can range from the absolutely insane (and therefore innocuous, as it has no danger of affecting society) to the more down-to-earth mundane things (which, conversely, can be a lot more dangerous in this sense).
The most extreme (and therefore most innocuous) form of this is the notion that some people have that the universe, the actual reality we live in, is personal and subjective. We make our own reality. If we think hard enough about something happening, it has a higher chance of happening, because we shape our own reality, our own existence, with our minds. Evidence-based science is rejected as antiquated and closed-minded.
That kind of philosophy is not very scary because nobody takes it seriously. Especially not anybody with any sort of power to impose it onto others and, for example, create legislation based on it.
However, there are other forms of postmodernist notions that are much more dangerous and virulent. Perhaps no other example is better and more prominent than the postmodernist idea of human gender.
In modernism, gender is defined by what can be measured and tested. It's a cold and hard scientific fact. We can take samples and put machines to inspect them, and see what the samples consist of. We can observe and measure the human body, its biology and its functionality. Everything can be rigorously observed, measured and tested.
In postmodernism, however, gender is defined by the subjective feelings of the person. Not only is the gender of the person not measurable by any machine, moreover there aren't even two genders, but however many each person wants there to be. People can freely make up new genders for themselves as they see fit and feel like. It doesn't matter what the test tubes and machines say, all that matters is what the person says and feels.
The very concept of "gender" cannot be scientifically stated, based on measurements, facts and testable evidence. Science is completely rejected in this (unless it is twisted for political purposes to support the notion).
Unlike the first extreme example of postmodernism earlier, this one is much scarier because it has much more influence in the actual world. It has much more influence, in a much, much wider scale, on how people behave and, perhaps most importantly, what kind of legislation is enacted, and how eg. schoolchildren are taught and treated. Nobody in their right mind would demand that schoolchildren be taught that the universe itself is shaped by whatever we think and want. However, schoolchildren at many places are already been taught that they can create their own genders as they wish, and to completely disregard science on this matter.
The really scary thing about it is how virulent the idea is. School after school, university after university, and government after government is embracing this form of postmodernism, and some countries are already enacting laws to enforce it. And there seems to be nothing to stop the insanity from spreading.
As mentioned, the concept of gender is but just one egregious example of postmodernism. There are many others. And they are getting more and more a hold in our society, undermining factual objective science.
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