QotD: “Postmodernism is deeply anti-theoretical”

Postmodernism is deeply anti-theoretical. It is elusive as it does not offer a theoretical framework that can be verified and falsified. The terminology is obscurantist. Postmodernists equate scientific theories with ‘narratives’. Reality, truth and meaning are socially constructed. Truth is dependent on contextual factors. Reason is no longer necessarily preferred over un-reason, nor is any moral code binding. According to postmodern authors, reality is not mirrored in human understanding of it, but is rather constructed. Postmodernism focuses on relative truths of each person or within each paradigm. Realities are plural and relative and dependent on who the interested parties are and what the nature of their interests are. Truth, according to Foucault, is linked to power. Although we may never find the truth, but many postmodernists even gave up the aim of truth-finding. According to Derrida, ‘there is nothing but the text’. Texts are endless grammatical chains of meanings that only refer to themselves, not to reality. Postmodernists dismiss any coherent link between language and an external reality.

Hans van Zon, The unholy alliance of neoliberalism and postmodernism

(Found via Pomeranian Privilege)

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