Wednesday, October 15, 2014

Questioning Questioning; What Does it Mean to Live in a Postmodern World?

What is living in a postmodern world mean? To discover that, one would have to figure out a definition for postmodernism itself. A general definition could be, questioning everything, and that could apply fine, but a better definition would have to include a suspicion of reason and a rejection of ideology, as well as denying ultimate principals or truths. In addition skepticism is better suited than questioning because skepticism implies a doubt of truth, rather than a doubt of everything. Also, postmodernism is applied to arts and philosophy, rather than life as a whole. So a better definition would go along the lines of; a skepticism towards the established and  a suspicion of reason. With that being established, lets move on.

The second thing one would have to establish before looking at what it means to live in a postmodern world.That being, what is a postmodern world? A postmodern world would be a world that fits with the definition of postmodernism. Simple enough, but it would have to reflect the definition not only in the arts and philosophy, but in life as a whole, such as in politics or business.

So is our world postmodern? No. 

Our world is not one that  has skepticism towards the established and  a suspicion of reason. That can be a good or a bad thing. We are not constantly tearing down old ideas to make new ones. We can build off the established rather than needing to turn around every day. The skepticism towards the established and  a suspicion of reason does not permeate our everyday lives, you do not think 'what is a tomato,' when going to the store and buying a tomato. You don't vote for one political party, just because the other political party is currently in power. History is either evolutionary or revolutionary, it either builds off its predecessor or goes in a different direction. We are in an age where there is more revolution than evolution, but we still have evolution, and evolution can be just as important as revolution towards advancing society.

1 comment:

  1. I agree with your statement about us no longer living in a postmodern world. I think a lot of the ways of thinking and the ideas after postmodernism has given us character traits and ideas about different things but I do not think that is the "new" ideology. We live in a post-postmodern world.

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