Modernism vs Postmodernism

Modernism vs Postmodernism in Philosophy
Premodernism- Based upon revealed knowledge from authoritative sources. Ultimate Truth could be known through direct revelation (usually from God).
Modernism- Empiricism and reason/logic were the new approaches to knowingness.
Postmodernism- A questioning of the previous approaches to knowing, advocating for epistemological pluralism in regards to knowing things, using revelation, science and reason, as well as intuition, the spiritual and relational. Distrusted authority.

Modernism and Enlightenment
Some postmodern frontrunners spoke about society entering a new phase- we were in a historical period with novel features, to be distinguished from the preceding Modern Age.
The Modern Age is associated with faith in:

• progress
• optimism
• rationality
• the search for absolute knowledge in science, technology, society and politics
• the idea of gaining knowledge of the true self was the only foundation for all knowledge

These kinds of values are often called Enlightenment Ideals, associated with the Age of Reason which originated in the 17th century and influenced all Western thought.

The general philosophy of the period is often defined in terms of its belief that progress in society could be brought about through the gradual perfection (through increasing self-knowledge and rigorous intellectual method) of humanity. An investment in human rights began though this also meant that the West believed that their values should be universally applied.

The proposed decline or break in these values makes up postmodernism. Postmodern society is often negatively associated with:

• exhaustion
• pessimism
• irrationality
• disillusionment with the idea of absolute knowledge
• an erosion of conventional distinctions between high and low culture
• fascination with how our lives seem increasingly dominated by visual media
• a questioning of ideas about meaning and communication, and about how signs refer to the world
• a sense that definitions of human identity are changing, or ought to change
• scepticism about the stories we tell to explain 'the human race' and about the idea of progress

However, some versions of postmodernism have seen it as an outcome/extension of modernity. Postmodernism as the latest point in the progress of modernization. Developments can be seen as the most recent product of the process of endless invention triggered by the Industrial Revolution than as part of a unique contemporary historical epoch that at some recent point simply snapped off from the past.

Television is seen as a symbol for postmodernism itself. It can just as easily be seen as a product of the rise of the mass media that began in the final quarter of the nineteenth century as this is when Marconi invented telegraphy and the Lumiere brothers developed cinematography. Therefore, television can be seen as another product of modernity.

Modernism and Art

Modernism began as a rejection of the ideas or cultural baggage of the past- new ideas such as evolution, psychology and socialism changed views of the world. God was dead, everyone was driven by their subconscious and all people were equal. Modernism was about new ideas all the time.

Commonalities in modern art:

• Masculinity- most modernist artists were male
• European- most modernist artists were European
• Utopian- a better world through better art (their own)
• Media before subject matter- most modernist masters thought the best, most honest art, was to use the technique of art as the subject matter, to get them closer to what art was about

Postmodernism began from a scrutiny of modernism- this was represented through upheavals in society- feminism and equal rights protest movements

• Feminity- where is the women's art
• Where is the culturally diverse art?
• Utopianism? Who controls the media? You can't trust anyone
• Media as the subject matter is a dead end. Can comic books be art?

Commonalities in postmodernism:

• Irony- the use of low brow imagery in high brow context- questioning what art is
• Appropriation/ Bricolage- the use of someone else's imagery in a new way to create new meaning
• Juxtaposition- using incongruent styles together
• Pluralism- multiple viewpoints, openness in difference
• Deconstruction- looking at multiple meanings

Umberto Eco- "The postmodern reply to the modern consists of recognising that the past, since it cannot really be destroyed, because its destruction leads to silence, must be revisited: but with irony, not innocently. I think of the postmodern attitude as that of a man who loves a very cultivated woman and knows that he cannot say to her "I love you madly" because he knows that she knows (and that she knows he knows) that these words have already been written by Barbara Cartland. Still, there is a solution. He can say "As Barbara Cartland would put it, I love you madly". At this point, having avoided false innocence, having said clearly it is no longer possible to talk innocently, he will nevertheless say what he wanted to say to the woman: that he loves her in an age of lost innocence. If the woman goes along with this, she will have received a declaration of love all the same. Neither of the two speakers will feel innocent, both will have accepted the challenge of the part, of the already said, which cannot be eliminated; both will consciously and with pleasure play the game of irony(...) But both will have succeeded, once again, in speaking of love."

Modernism vs Postmodernism

- Master Narratives and Metanarratives (a theory that arrogantly offers total, all-embracing answers) of history, culture and national identity; myths of cultural and ethnic origin vs. Suspicion and rejection of Master Narratives since they are dangerously authoritarian; local narratives, ironic deconstruction of master narratives: counter-myths of origin.
- Faith in "Grand Theory" (totalizing explanations in history, science and culture) to represent all knowledge and explain everything vs. Rejection of totalizing theories; pursuit of localising and contingent theories.
- Faith in, and myths of, social and cultural unity, hierarchies of social class and ethnic/national values, seemingly clear basis for unity vs. Social and cultural pluralism, disunity, unclear bases for social/national/ethnic unity.
- Master narrative of progress through science and technology vs. Skepticism of progress, anti-technology reactions, neo-Luddism (resist modern technology out of concern for the impact on individuals, their communities and the environment); new age religions.
- Sense of unified, centred self; individualism," unified identity vs. Sense of fragmentation and decentered self; multiple, conflicting identities.
- The idea of "the family" as the central unit of social order: the model of the middle-class, nuclear family vs. Alternative family units, alternatives to middle-class marriage model, multiple identities for couplings and child raising.
- Hierarchy, order, centralised control vs. Subverted order, loss of centralised control, fragmentation.
- Faith and personal investment in big politics (Nation-State, party) vs. Trust and investment in micropolitics, identity politics, local politics, institutional power struggles.
- Root/Depth tropes. Faith in "Depth" (meaning, value, content, the signified) over "Surface" (appearances, the superficial, the signifier) vs. Rhizome (suggests people / activities / representations grouping in unpredictable ways make unforeseen connections)/surface tropes. Attention to play of surfaces, images, signifiers without concern for "Depth".
- Faith in the "real" beyond media and representations; the authenticity of "originals" vs. Hyper-reality, image saturation, simulacra seem more powerful than the "real"; images and texts with no prior "original". "As seen on TV" and "as seen on MTV" are more powerful than unmediated experience.
- Dichotomy of high and low culture (official vs. popular culture); imposed consensus that high or official culture is normative and authoritative vs. Disruption of the dominance of high culture by popular culture; mixing of popular and high cultures, new valuation of pop culture, hybrid cultural forms cancel "high"/"low" categories.
- Mass culture, mass consumption, mass marketing vs. Demassified culture; niche products and marketing, smaller group identities.
- Art as a unique object and finished work authenticated by artist and validated by agreed upon standards vs. Art as process, performance, production, intertextuality. Art as recycling of culture authenticated by the audience and validated in subcultures sharing identity with the artist.
- Knowledge mastery attempts to embrace a totality. The encyclopaedia vs. Navigation, information management, just-in-time knowledge. The Web.
- Broadcast media centralized one-to-many communications vs. Interactive, client-server, distributed, many-to-many media (the Net and Web).
- Centering/centeredness, centralised knowledge vs. Dispersal, dissemination, networked, distributed knowledge
- Determinacy vs. Indeterminancy, contingency.
- The seriousness of intention and purpose, middle-class earnestness vs. Play, irony, challenge to official seriousness, subversion of earnestness.
- The sense of clear generic boundaries and wholeness (art, music, and literature) vs. Hybridity, promiscuous genres, recombinant culture, intertextuality, pastiche.
- Design and architecture of New York and Boston vs. Design and architecture of LA and Las Vegas
- Clear dichotomy between organic and inorganic, human and machine vs. Cyborgian mixing of organic and inorganic, human and machine and electronic
- Phallic ordering of sexual difference, unified sexualities, exclusion/bracketing of pornography vs. Androgyny, queer sexual identities, polymorphous sexuality, mass marketing of pornography
- The book as sufficient bearer of the word; the library as the system for printed knowledge vs. Hypermedia as transcendence of physical limits of print media; the Web or Net as the information system

Sources:

http://www.postmodernpsychology.com/philosophical_systems/overview.htm

Teach Yourself Postmodernism by Glenn Ward

http://www.slideshare.net/matcol/modernism-vs-post-modernism

http://www19.homepage.villanova.edu/karyn.hollis/prof_academic/Courses/2043_pop/modernism_vs_postmodernism.htm