Postmodernism rejects the notion of objective truth and universal principles. It is a reaction against modernism's view of scientific explanations of reality. Postmodernism places all principles, including its own, under skepticism. It views reality, truth, and knowledge as social constructions rather than objective facts. Key postmodern thinkers include Foucault, Baudrillard, Lyotard, and Derrida. Foucault examined how knowledge and power are intertwined and used for social control. Baudrillard analyzed society's obsession with consumption and signs. Lyotard discussed how knowledge has become a commodity and grand narratives are distrusted. Derrida deconstructed language and meaning through exploring ambiguity and contradiction in texts

1. Prepared by Raizza Corpuz

4. Postmodernism
• A general and wide-ranging term
which is applied to literature, art,
philosophy, architecture, fiction,
and cultural and literary criticism,
among others.
• a reaction to the assumed certainty
of scientific, or objective, efforts to
explain reality

5. "post"
• because it is denies the existence of
any ultimate principles, and it lacks
the optimism of there being a
scientific, philosophical, or religious
truth which will explain everything
for everybody - a characteristic of
the so-called "modern" mind.

6. The paradox of the postmodern
position is that
• in placing all principles under the
scrutiny of its skepticism, it must
realize that even its own
principles are not beyond
questioning

7. • Postmodernism is both a historical,
chronological notion and a philosophical
ideology.
• postmodernism is primarily a reinterpretation
of what knowledge is and what counts as
knowledge.
• it represents a form of cultural relativism
about such things as reality, truth, reason,
value, linguistic meaning, the self, and other
notions

8. • On a postmodernist view there is no
such thing as objective reality, truth,
value, reason and so forth.
• All these are social constructions,
creations of linguistic practices and, as
such, are relative not to individuals but
to social groups that share a narrative.

9. Postmodern, Postmodernism,
Postmodernity
• Postmodern: a generic term that can be used
to refer either to postmodernism or
postmodernity
• Postmodernity: a term that refers to the
historical period after modernity, as more
specifically seen in the sequence: prehistory,
ancient times, medieval period, modernity,
and postmodernity.

10. Postmodern, Postmodernism,
Postmodernity
• Postmodernism: a term that refers to a selfconscious cultural movement that reacted
against the principles and ideals of the
modernist movements in literature, art,
architecture, film, philosophy, etc.

11. Postmodernity
• is a historical period that spans less than
century, starting from the second half of the
20th century and persisting up to the present
• there are a number of historical events in
postmodernity that gave the period its
distinctive outlook and way of life.

12. 4 Groups according to Demeterio
III
1. events consists of the transformation of the
original capitalism into multinational and
consumer capitalism, and the harnessing of
nuclear energy.

13. 2. the proliferation of the mass media, the
development of the electronic technology,
and the establishment of the global network
of the world wide web. These resulted to the
rapid and continuous interchange of
information, knowledge and culture, that
subsequently created postmodernity’s global
village phenomenon.

14. 3. consists of the transcontinental air transit,
multiculturalism. These brought about the
collapse of cultural and national boundaries,
that did not only reinforced the global village
phenomenon but also contrasted sharply with
modernity’s faith and belief on the nation
state as well as its fervent nationalism.

15. 4. consists of the emergence and proliferation
of advocacy movements, such as feminism,
environmentalism, gay rights, and anti-war
activisms. These
mark
postmodernity’s
reaction against the hegemonies of patriarchy,
of science and technology, and of other forms
of totalitarianism.

17. Michel Foucault
(1926-1984)
• The
French
philosopher,
historian,
psychologist, political and gay activist
• Foucault’s critique of the modernity’s
compulsion for the control, normalization, and
standardization of the human subject stems
from his observation on how the ruling
classes’ values and cultures have stifled the
ways of life of the marginalized people, such
as the workers, the poor, the homosexual, the
colored, and those who are in prison

18. •
Foucault demonstrated that knowledge is
never objective, reliable, and neutral, but is
something generated in accordance to the
desires of the powerful, only to be used as a
tool for the domination and subjugation of the
less powerful.

26. • With this dictum he meant that a person who
possesses knowledge possesses power over
nature and over other persons.
• Foucault modifies Bacon’s dictum by stressing
that knowledge and power are never
separate. The quest for knowledge is already
motivated by a quest for power.

27. Baudrillard.

28. Baudrillard

29. • set to unveil some of postmodernity’s darker
sides.
focuses
his
critique
on
• Baudrillard
postmodernity’s obsession for consumption
• the main reason why the postmodern person
has become an insatiable consumer is the fact
that he/she has transformed from a consumer
of goods into a consumer of signs.

30. • For example, a man who buys
an expensive watch is not
merely buying a useful timetelling device, but more so a
prestige symbol that is
inscribed on the expensive
watch. Such
a
prestige
symbol will make the man
feel good and powerful,
specially when he compares
himself with the other people
around him whose watches
happen to be cheaper.

31. • The frugal modern person consumes goods,
but the extravagant postmodern person
consumes signs.
• goods are not anymore consumed mainly for
their values and utilities. Rather, they are
consumed for their prestige symbol.
• Thus, they are no longer goods as such, but
signs of prestige

32. Simulacra and Simulation
• In the book, Baudrillard
explains the trend of
cultural materialism in our
current society that has
created subcultures and
materialistic trends such as
fashion, that have no
actuality behind them.
• They are purposeless and
have engulfed in many
different ways our society
and everyone in it.

33. Interpretation Simulacra and Simulation
Simulacra – An image or representation,
an unreal or vague semblance.
Simulation - The act or process of
simulating, an imitation; a sham,
assumption of a false appearance,
imitation or representation, as of a
potential situation or in experimental
testing.

35. • This materialism has led to apathy for the
real issues in the world, and reality itself
has faded from sight.
• As mentioned before, victims of the 9/11
were comparing the event to a film rather
than real life events.
• This book explains how through
simulation, simulacra's become real,
leading to a culture built on nothingness
and how real information is distorted.

36. • Baudrillard calls the world of the spectacular
images hyper-reality
• An image becomes hyper-real when
postmodern people considers it even more
real than the real.
• For instance, when the photo-spread of a lady
in swimwear, which is a technologically
created image, becomes the standard against
which actual ladies in swimwear are judged
and evaluated.

39. Jean-Froncois Lyotard

40. Lyotard’s Philosophical Stance
• First, knowledge has ceased to be a human
value in itself and has become a commodity
to be stored, sold, and utilized for the pursuit
of some other ends, such as quest for power.
• Second, the postmodern world has become
more and more tolerant to the proliferation
of competing knowledges
• Third, the postmodern world has become
suspicious towards knowledges that claim
the status of a meta-narrative or grand
narrative.

41. • This commodification of knowledge, Lyotard
predicts, will have an astounding impact on
education.
• In the near future, education as we know it,
where the youth is systematically immersed in
the tradition of humanistic knowledge, will
give way to a more economical and more
pragmatic piecemeal education, where
adults are trained with modules for whatever
specific information they need for their
specific jobs.

42. • Lyotard notes that in the postmodern world,
knowledge is no longer pursued for its own
sake, but is generated and exchanged just like
any other commodity
• Bodies of knowledge that cannot be
commodified are gradually abandoned.
• Truth is no longer the supreme criteria of
knowledge, but utility and marketability.

43. Derrida
• theory of language as well as with his critical
methodology
• Derrida’s theory of language dismantles the
then dominant structuralist theory that neatly
claims that a word, or a sign, is made up of a
signifier (such as the word cat) and a signified
(such as the mental concept of a cat)

44. • For Derrida, a word, or a sign, does not
connect us to the secure and solid ground of
the thing being referred to.
• Words, or signs, therefore, are not stable, but
are like a shifting terrain, or a flickering
candlelight, or a set of footprints on a sandy
beach.

45. • Behind each word, or sign, is not a tangible
thing being referred to, but traces of other
signs, some of which are present while others
are absent.
• Derrida’s theory of language is the basis of
his more famous critical methodology, the
deconstruction

46. Deconstruction
• is a method of dissecting a text in order to
unearth its deep-seated contradictions,
inconsistencies, and ambivalence.
• It is a method of showing how a text fails
from its very own internal criteria.