Postmodernity as the Climax of Modernity: Horizons of the Cultural Future

Post-Modernsism is a very important and essential theory that has been brought about to the study of international relations. It falls under the category of post-positivism, which is a rejection of positivism in the sense that it dismisses the notion that international relations can be observed in an objective manner. Other theories encompassed in the post-positivism umbrella include constructivism, neo-marxism, critical theory, feminism, and post-colonialism (Burchill 2013). Post-Modernism also brought about new perspectives to international relations, these include: arbitrary nature of modernity, choice posing as truth, reality as a social construction, the rejection of positivism, the crisis of modernity, loss of confidence in the authority of the grand narratives, its relation to language, and the process of identity construction. Also, notably, Post-Modernism may receive criticism from constructivism and realism, but ultimately arguments for Post-Modernism will make more logical sense within the international relations arena. Lastly, Post-Modernism is essential because of it’s unique views in ideas such as language, abstract views, etc., to better understand political activity within the international relations community.

deception of a generation who has no answers. It refuses the safe scheme of realist tradition offering an alternative object that doesn’t explain what it represents but hints another beauty and a different order for those who will never die. Postmodernist is a depthless response to the inevitable. It is not interested in offering solution because postmodernism doesn’t have any. It doesn’t solve the tragedy it takes it for granted, it has learnt how to live with natural disasters and the thread of a nuclear moment. It doesn’t suggest alternative beauty or reachable peace but it toys with the shallowest aspect of contemporaneity, consumerism and daily issues. It waits the end for those who will die tomorrow. Wang Ning, based on Ihab Hassan’s essay, outlines eleven major differences between modern and postmodern . While offering reasoning of my ontological disagreement for a generalization that underestimate the darkness of modernism might take us out of track, wide comparison might help the reader to go through what will follow:

The writer gives three specific aspects of the “Legacy of the Scientific Revolution” which stem from the ideas of absolutism. The first part of the legacy is “the increasing presence of an attitude of mechanization toward the processes of nature” which is how machinery is applied to nature to help understand it better. This was done in many ways, one example is the invention of the first telescopes. In Holland lenses of different shapes were combined by eyeglass makers to see the sky more detailed than the naked eye could see (Lewis 359). The second phrase of the legacy is “an increasing attitude of mechanization toward the creation of knowledge, enshrining the process of rationalism and empiricism that would become the hallmarks of modern

It is a perceptible phenomenon that modern ideas and transnational interaction between people brings about so many changes that they come into conflict with the existing norms and belief systems of a society. In fact, the ability to assimilate productive changes and the capacity to discard beliefs that are detrimental to the interest of the society are the essential qualities of a good social order. If a society allows itself to be dominated by beliefs that are not in tune with the needs and aspirations of the changing times, one cannot ascribe it as a progressive society. On the other hand, it must also be said that a society that is open to change without considering the detrimental effects that such a change can make in

A weakness of postmodernism, its central one according to critics, lies in its refusal to point out an alternative path for social life. Postmodernists assert that all aspects of social life are subject to the same dynamics so as such, there is

Postmodernism is a term which is highly contested in the sociological world, where it is used to indicate a significant detachment from modernism. It is easier to give the uses of the term; ‘to give a name to the present historical period, to name a specific style in arts and architecture and to name a point of rupture or disjuncture in epistemology’ (Buchanan, 2010). For this,

Where Modernism is characterized by disillusionment and cynicism, Postmodernism turns to satiric critiques. Satire is a genre of literature that ridicules human follies in the hopes of improving society. “In our postmodern culture which is TV dominated, image sensitive, and morally vacuous, personality is everything and character is increasingly irrelevant” (Wells). We have managed to push aside the important qualities and instead only lay focus to the materialistic and unnecessary requirements in the world. In postmodernism disintegration of barriers is key.“This isn’t life, it’s just stuff. And it’s become more important to you then living…”(American Beauty). Our society is built upon the desire to accumulate, if not even to please oneself but to make others covet. The obsession people have with obtaining materialistic goods in the hopes to make themselves happy is a dark path which many fall down. It ultimately results in the downfall of society and the loss of traditional values and humane morals. The post modernistic world is one that can’t be avoided, but also doesn’t have to consume everything humans have cherished for so long. The world I currently live in is not one I choose to want to live

Also postmodern society involves the growth of consumerism and especially the idea that we now construct our identities

The Middle Ages, and all of prominently configured ancient times differ from modern social traditions, relevantly due to the broad differenced in culture, technology, religious and sciences. The Renaissance Ages were moreover considered as the years of transition, where contemporary scientific discoveries were placed into affect, and enhanced political systems were inaugurated to battle against the “sovereign” yet malignant rulers who were determined to save their thrones in their Empires, and engaged in any remote, and localized conflicts to disable their opponents victories. New technologies were indeed in the revolutionary stages, and several new devices were founded by well contemplating scientists to ease the lifestyle of the everyday

To begin with, to determine the meaning of postmodernism is possible only through the relationship with modernism. Modernism in modern science is understood as a kind of cultural consciousness, which is implemented in the artistic practice of symbolism, expressionism and acmeism. In the socio-historical context, it means the period of modernism in the development of culture from the late nineteenth to mid-twentieth century, that is, from Impressionism to a new novel and the theatre of the absurd. Modernism as a world based on the principles of urbanism (the cult of the city), technologism (the cult of the industry), primitivism (the cult of the underdeveloped role model), and others. Postmodernism simultaneously grows and is repelled by the picture of the world, established in modernism. Overcoming modernist tendencies, postmodern cult of the city replaces cosmism, values of industrial society - environmentalism, denying mindless nature and asserting the need for harmonious relations between society and nature. Thus, the ideological concept of postmodernism includes the principles of cosmism, environmentalism and post humanism in a culture of active includes sexual minorities, and the ideas of feminism. Art of modernism and postmodernism is the realization of a universal picture of the world, reflecting the human consciousness of the twentieth century, the main feature of which is the new principle of the relation of being and consciousness.

Lyotard, Jean François. The Postmodern Explained to Children: Correspondence "Answering the Question: What Is the Postmodern?", 1982-1985. Sydney: Power Publications, 1992.

Exploring postmodernism as an agent for the change, from a social and political context, it

The aspects of postmodernism

The biggest achievement in the Scientific Revolution was the collapse of the ancient-medieval picture of the world. The new ideology was created, which helped to create the modern science. In antiquity, the focus was on natural and cosmic life; during the Renaissance, there was a focus on understanding the world through Humanism and the role of the person in the world. After all, Descartes’s philosophy, which was the foundations of the scientific method, did not deny the creation of the world by God. However, it claimed that from that moment the world began to develop with its internal laws.

That postmodernism is indefinable is a truism. However, it can be described as a set of critical, strategic and rhetorical practices employing concepts such as difference, repetition, the trace, the simulacrum, and hyperreality to destabilize other concepts such