Postmodernism Is a Philosophy and an Aesthetic

Postmodernism is a philosophy and an aesthetic that has become increasingly popular in both mass culture and academia alike. It is characterized in its style by pastiche, self-referential humor, and often parodies the art form it is attempting to create. Writers in the postmodern genre are hyper-conscious about the fact that they are creating something, and deliberately 'show the seams' of their work, forcing the reader to question what is fiction and what is real. This highlights the constructed nature of the written word. But while postmodernism may be fairly obvious in art, to understand what postmodernism 'is,' philosophically speaking, the definition of modernism must be clarified, given that it was this philosophical movement to which postmodernism was reacting against.

First and foremost, modernism advocated the idea that there was the "existence of stable, coherent 'self', independent of culture and society" (Drake 2012). This self might feel alienated or unhappy, but the self was fundamental and unchanging. In stark contrast, postmodernism stresses that there is no self or 'I.' Instead, what was considered the 'self' is a cultural product and the result of different contextual situations. Postmodernists would point out that people often behave very differently, depending on the context in which they find themselves. The notion of the unchanging 'I' is, postmodernists claim, itself a product of Romanticism and Western culture and does not have a corresponding parallel in all cultures around the world. There is also a denial of the strong Christian emphasis in Western culture on the soul. Although postmodernism lacks a theological orientation, its tenants resonate much more with the Buddhist notion of non-self and the impermanent nature of reality rather than the Christian, permanent view of the soul as something that stands apart from history, culture and the body.

Postmodernism also arose in reaction to modernism's emphasis on the objectivity of science and rationality. Like 'the self,' modernists believed that the truths of science stood apart from the subjective assertions of everyday life and had an unchanging, rational, and permanent status as truth. Modernism held that "reason and science provide accurate, objective, reliable foundation of 'knowledge,'" while postmodernists see science as merely one discipline amongst many (Drake 2012). Postmodernists believe that science is also a product of culture, just like any other epistemological system. Scientific claims have been influenced by racism, cultural biases (such as claims about the intellectual inferiority of women), political pressures and inaccuracies.

For postmodernists, all ideas are relative. "Ideas such as God, freedom, immortality, the world, first beginning, and final end have only a regulative function for knowledge, since they cannot find fulfilling instances among objects of experience" (Aylesworth 2012). Postmodernism stresses how all cultures have different versions of these concepts, or lack such concepts at all. Rather than drawing connections between all faiths, postmodernism stresses cultural differences and the particular nature of beliefs.