Saturday 11 September 2021

"In short, postmodernism is relativism run riot, skepticism on stilts..."


"In short, postmodernism is relativism run riot, skepticism on stilts. In terms of the culture wars, it informs the arguments of those who think that American society is inferior to others and on the decline, that there are no 'Great Books' of a higher order of merit than others, that science and technology are socially constructed and are not making genuine progress, and that modern free-market economics has lowered living standards. As Hicks notes, there is a contradictory tone to all this — all cultures are equal, but ours stinks; all truth is relative, except the unquestionable po-mo truth; no race, class or gender is superior, but middle class white males are clearly inferior; and no books are superior, except, of course, those by third-world authors. Where does this farrago of resentment come from? 
    "Hicks rightly views postmodernist philosophy as the most recent manifestation of the reaction against the Enlightenment, what we might call the Counter-Enlightenment..."
          ~ Professor Gary James Jason reviewing Stephen Hicks's Explaining Postmodernism 


1 comment:

Desperado said...

I've just finished reading Hick's book. I have to say, it is one of the best in the business. He actually answers some of the deeper questions about the origin and goals of postmodernism that others have missed just pointing at the weirder side of postmodernism. Highly recommended.