2. • INTRODUCTION TO POSTMODERNISM
– Definition : Postmodernism, Modernism, Pre-
modernism
• UNDERSTANDING POSTMODERNISM
– Postmodernism Vs. Modernism
• CRITIQUES TO POSTMODERNISM
• CLASS ACTIVITY
3. Introduction to Postmodernism
POSTMODERNISM
The heart of postmodernism is the
view that reality cannot be known
nor described objectively, in
contrast to the modernist view that
says that reality can be understood
objectively.
Objective Reality – a reality that
completely exists independent of any
conscious entity to observe it.
Subjective Reality – what we perceive.
4. • Postmodernism- set of ideas that has
only emerged in 1950’s
• Modernism- Enlightenment
• Pre-modernism- Medieval
5. MEDIEVAL
PERIOD
Collective
No sense of individualism
Theistic
Roman Catholic church
Static
People accepted their
station in the society.
6. RENAISSANCE
• Classical learning was rediscovered
and new era of fresh learning
began.
• Francis Bacon – Scientific Method
• Industrial Revolution
• Science Empiricism
• Humanism
7. RENE DESCARTES
Process of the doubt to
discover if there was
something that he could not
doubt.
“ I think therefore I am”
• The Cartesian Philosophy
became so influential that it
set the philosophical agenda
for the entire modern period.
8. ENLIGHTENMENT
Believes in the human capability,
the scientific method, and the
certitude of knowledge.
ISAAC NEWTON-
• Laws of Motion
The discovery of the laws of
motion caused the people to
regard that everything
functions in an orderly way
according to the natural laws.
9. IMMANUEL KANT
“ Critique of Pure Reason “
- Knowledge depends on the
structure of the mind;
categories exists within our
minds that actively generates
perception.
- Assumed to be universal in all
people; perceive the world in
the same way.
11. -He taught that we each construct
our own world according to our own
perception..
Truth exists only within the
specific linguistic contexts which
we construct and perhaps share
with others.
-an illusion of our perception
12. Postmodernism Vs. Modernism
• Reality
– Interpretation VS. Scientific Knowledge
• Grand Narratives
– theory that tries to give a totalizing, comprehensive
account to various historical events, experiences,
and social, cultural phenomena based upon the appeal
to universal truth or universal values.
13. • Metanarratives suggest that ‘absolute knowledge’ exists. Absolute
knowledge and truth suggests that human knowledge can be objectively
determined with the assistance of science, technology, society and
politics.
• Postmodern theory rejects the idea of absolute knowledge; believing
instead that all human knowledge is subjective and can have no
absolute meaning.
• This postmodern belief in subjective experience also leads to the
rejection of the modern ideal of rationality. Rationality believes in
rigorous scientific (not subjective) reasoning.
• If modern thought is defined by belief in ‘progress’, ‘rationality’, and
‘absolute knowledge’, postmodernism can be defined by a belief in
irrationality, subjective knowledge and rejection of progress.
14. Michel Foucault
no “one” Truth
In broad sense, Foucault’s description of a
critical use of truth has to do with the way
society defines truth. That is each society
has what it defines as it’s own domain of
TRUTH.
Cultural Relativism.
15.
16. Postmodernism brought with it a questioning of the
previous approaches to knowing. Instead of relying on
one approach to knowing, they advocate for an
epistemological pluralism which multiple ways of
knowing. This can include the premodern ways and
modern ways along with many other ways of knowing
such as relational, and spiritual.
17. POSTMODERN MAN
- Does not believe in single meanings,
- One who takes advantage of pluralism and
multiplicity
“ President Duterte is a postmodern in
the sense that he escapes any attempt
to be named and labeled. He is
unpredictable. He is an iconoclast in
that he challenges conventions in
almost everything. His identity rests
on fluidity rather than on certainty.
He forces the people to pay attention
to the nuances of language if only to
make sense of what he says...
18. … He interrupts the usual, subverts the
conventional, and the challenges the
traditional, and deploys a kind of
unpredictability that becomes his own
weapon. This is why the elites and
those who lived comfortably in the
certainty of the “daang matuwid” and
black and white politics hate him.
He is the master of simulations, in the
sense that one could no longer
distinguish his image from his reality.
Unlike his predecessors who lived on
contrived imaging courtesy of stage
narratives by media spinners.”
-Antonio Contreras