Postmodernity: what is it and what philosophy characterizes it?

We review the characteristics of this historical stage and the philosophy that defines it.

In order to explain and understand the social transformations that we are undergoing, in Western societies we have generated different frameworks of knowledge, which include different concepts and theories. This is how we have generated and divided the history of ideas from branches that generally go from the origins of Greek philosophy to the present time.

The latter, the current epoch, has been named in many different ways, among which is the concept of postmodernity.. In this article we will see some definitions of this term, as well as some of its main characteristics.

What is postmodernity?

Postmodernity is the concept that refers to the state or sociocultural climate through which Western societies are currently passing. The latter includes a subjective and intellectual dimension, but it also has to do with political and economic organization, as well as artistic activity.. And this is so because they all refer to the different phenomena that are configured in our societies, and that at the same time make our societies configure themselves.

On the other hand, it is called "postmodernity" or "postmodernity" because the prefix "post" makes it possible to establish points of rupture with the previous epoch, which we know as "modernity". This means that it is not that modernity has ended, but rather that it has been traversed: there are some global elements that have undergone important transformations, with the result that some local and subjective phenomena have also been transformed..

Moreover, the use of this prefix also implies that postmodernity does not go against modernity, but that in its synthesis the stage of modernity is necessary, although it overflows this category.

The questioning of metanarratives

It should be borne in mind, however, that the concept of postmodernity the concept of postmodernity originally referred to an artistic and cultural movement, rather than a political one.rather than a political one. However, it served as an inspiration for social movements that incorporated the questioning of metanarratives (explanations of the functioning of society with pretensions of universalism) into their approach to politics.

Moreover, because it is such an ambiguous concept (because its core idea is a kind of radicalized relativism), there can be no consensus on what it means to be postmodern. This implies that beyond the critique of the concept of universal truth, there is not much else that the postmodern elements of society have in common; not even the idea that all narratives are equally valid is accepted by the entire postmodern movement.

Thus, if there is one thing that characterizes the postmodern movement, it is the questioning of meta-narratives. the questioning of meta-narrativeswhich are something like the hegemonic ways of interpreting ideologies and ways of conceiving reality and historical events. From this philosophy we tend to view with skepticism the ways of thinking that pretend to explain everything, offering closed theories about what happens in the world.

Postmodernism or postmodernism?

The difference between the two concepts is that the first refers to the cultural state and how the institutions and ways of life that were characteristic of modernity have been modified, giving rise to new processes and ways of life.

The second concept, that of postmodernism, refers to the new ways of understanding the world in new ways of understanding the world in terms of knowledge production..

In other words, the first concept makes a clearer reference to changes in the social and cultural configuration; while the second refers to changes in the way of generating knowledge, which involves new epistemological paradigms that impact scientific or artistic production, and that finally have repercussions on subjectivities.

To put it even more succinctly, the term "postmodernity" refers to a sociocultural situation of a specific era, which is that of the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 20th century. the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century (dates vary according to the author). And the term "postmodernism" refers to an attitude and an epistemic position (to generate knowledge), which is also the result of the sociocultural situation of the same era.

Origins and main characteristics

The beginnings of postmodernism vary according to the reference, the author or the specific tradition being analyzed. Some say that postmodernity is not a distinct epoch, but an actualization or extension of modernity itself. The truth is that the limits between one and the other are not completely clear. Nevertheless, we can consider different events and processes that were relevant to generate important transformations.

1. Political-economic dimension: globalization

The term "postmodernity" differs from the term globalization in that the former refers to the cultural and intellectual state and the latter refers to the global organization and expansion of capitalism as an economic system, and democracy as a political system.

However, both are related concepts that have different points of convergence. And this is so because postmodernity has been initiated in part by the process of political and economic transformation that has generated what we can call "post-industrial societies". Societies where the relations of production went from being centered on industry to being mainly centered on the management of technology and communication.

For its part, globalization, the rise of which is present in postmodernity, refers to the global expansion of capitalism. Among other things, the latter has resulted in the reformulation of the socioeconomic inequalities deployed by modernity, as well as lifestyles strongly based on the need for consumption.

2. Social dimension: the media and technologies

Those institutions that in previous times defined our identity and sustained social cohesion (because they made our roles in the social structure very clear to us almost without the possibility of imagining something different), lose stability and influence. These institutions are replaced by the entry of new media and technologies.

This creates a subjection to these media, because they are positioned as the only mechanisms that allow us to know "reality". Some sociological theories suggest that this creates a "hyperreality" where what we see in the media is even more real than what we see outside the media, causing us to conceive the phenomena of the world in a very narrow way.

However, depending on how they are used, new technologies have also generated the opposite effect: they have served as an important tool of subversion and questioning..

3. Subjective dimension: fragments and diversity

After the Second World War, the era we know as modernity entered a process of rupture and transformation that weakened the pillars of order and progress (the main characteristics of the scientific and social revolutions). the critique of excessive rationality spreads, as well as a crisis of values.and a crisis of the values that had marked traditional relationships.

One of the effects of this is a large number of devices for the construction of subjectivities: on the one hand, it generates a significant fragmentation of subjectivities and community processes (individualism is reinforced and also generates accelerated and fleeting links and lifestyles, which are reflected, for example, in fashion or in the art and music industry).

On the other hand, diversity becomes visible. Individuals are then individuals are freer to construct both our identity and our social articulations, and new forms of both and new ways of understanding the world and ourselves are inaugurated.

That is to say, postmodern thought rejects the ideal of achieving the most objective way of thinking possible and therefore adjusted to reality in its most fundamental and universal aspects. Priority is given to giving voice to alternative narratives that explain facets of reality that are neither the most common nor the ones that receive the most attention.

On the other hand, this rejection of narratives with pretensions of universality has been criticized for being considered an excuse to legitimize relativism of all kinds, something that leaves out of the debate "popular knowledge" associated with non-Western cultures or alien to the heritage of the Enlightenment: Chinese medicine, belief in spirits, radical identity movements, etc.

Bibliographical references

• Baudrillard, J.; Habermas, J.; Said, E. et.al. (2000). Postmodernity. Barcelona: Kairós.
• Bauman, Z. (1998). Viewpoint Sociology and postmodernity. Retrieved June 18, 2018. Available at http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1467-954X.1988.tb00708.x.
• Brunner, J.J. (1999). Cultural globalization and postmodernity. Revista Chilena de Humanidades, 18/19: 313-318.
• Fuery, P. & Mansfield, N. (2001). Cultural Studies and Critical Theory. Melbourne: Oxford University Press.
• Mansfield, N. (2000). Subjectivity: Theories of the self from Freud to Harroway. Sydney: Allen & Unwin.
• Revise Sociology (2016). From Modernity to Post-Modernity. Recuperado 18 de junio de 2018. Disponible en https://revisesociology.com/2016/04/09/from-modernity-to-post-modernity/.