I remember when I first heard the word
post-modernism. It was during my second
year at Liverpool University studying
Media and Communications. The lecturer was
saying words like meta-narratives,
modernism and something about a French
philosopher in a leotard... All of which
went straight through one ear, and out
the other. So if you're watching this
thinking 'Me too',
fear not. Postmodernism is a tricky
concept. But after this video hopefully
you'll feel a little bit less like this,
and a little bit more like this.
But first thing's first: What is
post-modernism? As you can see, we've got
'Post' which is Latin for after, and 'Modern'. So essentially what we're talking about
is something which happened after the
modern era. But what's the modern era? Good
question.
Modernity can be described as having
several characteristics, but for the
purposes of this video we'll focus on it
at a time that was characterized by
rapid advances in rational, cognitive
thinking. At this time people believed
that man was capable of objectively
explaining everything that existed and
possessing the One And Only Truth about
the world. They lived their lives
according to grand narratives,
otherwise known as 'Metanarratives'. The
postmodern period is a reaction against
this. Enter Jean-François Lyotard. Lyotard
was a French philosopher, a key postmodern thinker - and apparently never wore a leotard.
Lyotard described the era simply as: "An incredulity towards metanarratives." Capitalism,
science and religion are all metanarratives. Postmodernists have
abandoned the idea of the metanarrative
because they all claim to be experts on
how the world should work. Instead of
there being just one absolute truth, postmodernists believe that several theoretical
standpoints can exist at the same time.
however some people criticize postmodern
ideas for this, accusing them of
advocating relativism. Relativism is
the idea that no claim to truth is
absolute all claims are equally valid. In
2017 Dennett stated: "Post modernists are
responsible to the intellectual fad that
made it respectable to be cynical about
truth and fact." But do we think this is
true? Arguably, there's a need
today to be vigilant about the facts
fed to us by the media, even if the
facts are supposedly backed up by
experts. The issue of expert knowledge
has been a big topic in politics
recently. In a controversial interview
about Brexit, Michael Gove claimed that
the people of Britain have now "had
enough of experts." - and he might have a
point. Some people today even reject
expert knowledge about climate change
and global warming.
The BBC now give equal weight to the
perspective that rejects the idea of
global warming despite the evidence of
scientific experts. And what about this
guy? Think about the way that Donald
Trump actively and regularly rejects the
advice of his intelligence experts. He
could be seen as representative of this
trend of being cynical about truth in
fact that postmodernists are often
criticized for. But what do you think? Is
giving validity to all interpretations
a good thing? Feel free to share your
thoughts in the comments section below. If
you enjoyed this video please click like
and subscribe below, leave a comment and
check out our other videos. This has been
me, Hannah for Media/Pool. Thanks for
watching!
