Eli5: What is modernism and post-modernism?
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In the briefest possible terms:
Modernism is what happened when the humanist values of the Enlightenment collided with the capitalist dystopia of the Industrial Revolution. After humanism seemingly won (by imposing moral restrictions on employment of children, length of the workday, humane working conditions, and so on), people became convinced that industry (science and technology) could be a positive force if guided by humanist ideals.
Post-modernism is the cynicism about the value of human life that emerged from the trenches of WWI and then crystallized after WWII in Western Europe. It rejects all notion of reason and objectivity. Post-modernism contributes nothing to the progress of mankind because it rejects the idea of progress and as an intellectual endeavor has struggled to justify itself except as opposition to the pre-existing philosophies.
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