Eli5: What is modernism and post-modernism?

Question

Eli5: What is modernism and post-modernism?

In: 81

Answer 1

I think in come contexts, ‘modernism’ is a style of thinking that hinges on a belief that you can accurately and objectively categorise or mentally organise things in order to understand them. Two different modernist theories might disagree, but the thing they have in common is thinking that things or concepts can be concretely separated.

So some modernist ideas (regardless of whether they are true or not)

* Animals are truly divided into distinct species.
* There are 2 objectively different human genders determined by biological sex and they have no overlap.
* Karl Marx’s analysis of there being “capitalists” and “proletariat” is an economy is valid and accurate.

Post-modernism is when you start to doubt these sharp distinctions and assert (or perhaps realise/admit) that there is subjectivity to such things.

For instance:

* The concept of ‘species’ is merely a useful tool or shorthand, but not objectively real. It needn’t be abandonned but we shouldn’t be perplexed when it breaks down in some complicated cases.
* ‘Gender’ is a social construct that correlates to, but is not entirely determined by, biological sex (and indeed, biological sex is not neatly seperated either, as there is overlap and edge cases at the biological level).
* People can be a mix of both capitalist and proletariat (a homeowner who works for a wage, or a salaried person who owns a large share portfolio, etc), and the idea of ‘capital’ can extend beyond just the economic sort (such as scoial capital and perhaps other kinds), creating, at least, 2 or 3 spectrums of how one relates to capital. It may be useful to consider the interests of each extreme, but assuming they are always entirely separate is a mistake.

If you suport post-modernism then you might think that post-modernism succeeds in going beyond and fixing the modernist ideas. If you dislike post-modernism then perhaps you think post-modernism fails and introduces pointless faff and distraction and misinformation.

[I don’t know if my examples were the best ones, or are common ones found in liturature/research/politics/philosophy/etc, but I think they are ok examples of the pattern of thought.]