Subject: [IFETS-Discuss] PoMo
rleamnson@umassd.edu
Date: Mon 05 Jun 2000 - 06:00:14 MEST
From: rleamnson@umassd.edu Subject: [IFETS-Discuss] PoMo Date: Sun, 04 Jun 2000 21:00:14 -0700
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If words are the windows to the mind, the word "postmodern" is very
much in need of a good cleaning. My cyberfriend Muhammad very generously
suggests that postmodernism is just a variety of skepticism. It seems to me
that anyone with a modicum of common sense is a skeptic; it that's all there
were to it we would not be having this dialogue. The problem was well put
by Neil Postman: "In trying to comprehend more or less precisely what
postmodernism is trying to teach us, I have found it near-impossible to
locate two people who agree on what it is."
We can usually rely on Postman to hit a nail squarely on its head. To
his utter astonishment, Postman found himself classified by another writer
as a postmodern. (He said his shock must have been similar to that of Le
Bourgeois Gentilhomme who was amazed to discover that he had been speaking
prose all his life.)
Indulge me another Postman quotation, longish this time, because it is
particularly relevant:
"If postmodernism is simply skepticism elevated to the highest degree,
we may give it muted applause. The applause must be muted because even
skepticism requires nuance and balance. To say that all reality is a social
construction is interesting, indeed provocative, but requires, nonetheless,
that distinctions be made between what is an unprovable opinion and a
testable fact. And if one wants to say that "a testable fact" is, itself, a
social construction, a mere linguistic illusion, one is moving dangerously
close to a kind of Zeno's paradox. One can use a thousand words, in French
or any other language, to show that a belief is a product of habits of
language--and graduate students by the carload can join in the fun--but
blood still circulates through the body and the AIDS virus still makes
people sick and the moon is not made of green cheese." (From "Building a
Bridge to the Eighteenth Century.")
So what is a postmodernist? Perhaps scriptures has an answer: "By
their fruits shall you know them."
Bob Leamnson
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