Eli5: What is modernism and post-modernism?
In: 81
The answer will vary depending on what field you are talking about.
But assuming philosophy, which I guess is the root of their manifestations elsewhere.
Modernism is a philosophical movement that came out of the Industrial Revolution and the rapid advancement of scientific progress, especially with Darwin’s theory of Evolution. Quite tangibly the material wealth and wellbeing of the world was improving rapidly thanks to our greater understanding of science and ability to manufacture goods. This led to philosophical movement that through embracing industrialization and understanding humanity we can create a utopian future. Basically it was a period of optimism about the future for humanity with a lot of ideas about how to achieve that utopian future.
Post-Modernism is the reaction to that following WWII, in which it was brutally demonstrated that these ideals can lead to terrible places. The Nazi’s plan for the world was repulsive and the Socialist vision of the future had thoroughly been captured by Authoritarianism. For example Eugenics is a thoroughly modernist idea, through selective breeding we can create better people, that though the late 1800’s to 1940’s was a common intellectual hobby until the Nazi’s demonstrated where that idea goes.
Post-Modernism is a far more cynical philosophy that rejects a lot of the foundational Enlightenment ideas that Modernism was built on. That there is an objective truth to some conclusions, that humanities progress was assured as we developed scientifically, that it is possible to completely understand societies, there is a ‘human nature’ etc. Overall its a skepticism of Modernist ideas and ideology leading to a lot of varying strains of thought.
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