Postmodernism

The intellectual movemement of postmodernism started to develop towards the end of the twentieth century. There are two publications that can be said to have marked the real intellectual birth of postmodernim, the postmodern condition by Jean-Francois Lyotard and Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature by Richard Rorty.

Postmodernism is not a homogeneous intellectual movement, but draws on a variety of different cultural and social contexts. In an asthetic sense, postodernism can be understood as a renunciation of functionality as the primary doctrine for artistic expression. Functionality was replaced by concepts such as signification and intertextuality. Postmodernist thinking revolved around the concepts of fragmentation and discontinuity.

Similar to poststructuralism, postmodernism questions truth claims and the absolute faith modernity puts into science and science's abilities to adequately depict the 'real world'. The emphasis is on language and the creation of reality through language, also scientific language which in turn contributes to the way scientific analysis is conducted and scientific research results are presented and framed. Postmodernism turns its back on grand, meta-narratives, the so called grand theories that were typical for most classical sociologists such as Karl Marx or Emile Durkheim. Postmodernism criticizes the assumption of a fixed set of categories that are invariably at the centre of such theories and assumed to be universal, in favor of small-scale, local case-based narratives that take into account the very particular and specific circumstances of each different case.

Although it is very hard to define what postmodernity would actually be, what are the defining features of postmodernism and what it actually is that unites postmodern scholars and defines them as a group of scholars, postmodernism has contributed to sociology and sociological discourse. It has done so mainly through challenging an overly positive perspective on modernity influenced by an unbreakable faith in science and the scientific method. Postmodernism has opened up new perspectives on modernity and has given criticism towards modernity and the dark sides of modernity room. In acknowledging these contributions it does not matter whether postmodernity is seen as merely an extension of modernity or whether it is a wholly new phase of development. The importance is the development of a view much more focused on individual cases, on deconstructing the great faith and trust in science and functionalism and to challenge modernity as the ultimate rational utopia for humankind.

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