POSTMODERNISM

Postmodernism



Postmodernism

Introduction

According to Foster, “One of the most significant features or practices in today is pastiche”. (Foster. 1983, p.1l3) The term postmodernism represents a culmination of the process of modernity and enlightenment thought, toward speedy cultural change, to a state where constant change is the status quo, leaving the notion of progress contradictory. Postmodernism, thus, relies on concrete experience over abstract principles, always cognizant that the end result of one's experience will necessarily be fallible and relative rather than certain and universal. While modernism deals with purpose, design, hierarchy, distance, synthesis, centering, and presence, postmodernism is synonymous with play, chance, anarchy, participation, antithesis, dispersal, and absence. As a cultural movement, factors such as globalization, consumerism, the fragmentation of authority, and the commodification of knowledge have greatly contributed to the development of postmodernism.

Smith has argued that ethics and design do not mix (2005. P. 10).

History and Development

Ihab Hassan points out several instances when the term was used before postmodernism became a theoretical discipline in the 1970s. John Watkins Chapman, an English academic painter, used it in the late 1870s to mean postimpressionism, whereas Federico de Onis used it in 1934 to mean a reaction against the difficulty and experimentalism of modernist poetry. The eminent historian Arnold Toynbee used it in 1939 to mean the end of the modern, Western bourgeois order dating back to the 17th century, while Bernard Smith, in 1945, referred to it to mean the movement of socialist realism in painting. (Gustafson,2000 645)

By the late 19th century, Soren Kierkegaard and Karl Barth's important fideist approach, or the view that religious knowledge depends on faith and lifestyle, brought irreverence to reason and the notion that truth is subjectivity. Nietzsche introduced the concept of existentialism and injected a new nihilism and atheism that influenced culture. The early 20th century saw aspects of postmodernism arise with the emergence of the Dada movement, which focused on the framing of objects and discourse as being as important as, or more important than, the work itself.

Many philosophers during the mass post colonialism period after World War II speculated that one could not have an objectively superior lifestyle or belief. This idea was further expounded by the anti foundationalist philosopher Heidegger, followed by Jacques Derrida, who reexamined the fundamentals of knowledge and deconstructionism. These philosophers broadly argued that rationality and logic were neither as certain nor as clear as the modernists or rationalists assert.

The main post modernistic movement started in the late 20th century and is reflected in the social and philosophical realities of that period. Many, such as John Ralston Saul, have argued that postmodernism represents an accumulated disillusionment with the promises of the progress of science so central to modern thinking. Important books on postmodernism during this period include those by Jean-François Lyotard and Richard Rorty. Jean Baudrillard, Michel Foucault, and Roland Barthes are others who contributed strongly to the development of postmodern theory during this period. (D'Andrade,1995 407)

Postmodernism and Business EthicsPostmodern business ethics assumes that values and actions are determined without objective valuation ...