Postmodernism Critical Thinking Sample

Brian Duigman (2014), Postmodernism is a western philosophy that arose in the twentieth century characterized by a broad spectrum of suspicion of relativism, skepticism, and subjectivism. Postmodernism is a primary response to the philosophical values and assumptions of the modern times. In the modern era, truth and reality are dependent on an individual’s social class, genders, history, religions, and culture. On the other sides, post-modernist would view all the aspects as natural factors that are culturally shaped to create a meaning in one’s life. However, these factors are localized and do not apply universally. Modernism held the previous inventions, literary work as a source of authority in determining the truth.
As noted earlier, Modernism was a reaction the outburst of scientific inventions while postmodernism was a response to the modernist ideologies. Therefore, a modernist person would view the world in terms of universal beliefs, truths, and religious aspects advanced in the previous times. On the other hand, postmodernism rejects the principle of dualism introduced during the modernist era (Steve Cornel, n.d). The essence of right or wrong or truth of false did not include all perspectives. Postmodernism proposes a broad view rather that white vs. black, male or female among others. Further, post-modernism people tend to question the moral authority of historical texts. The texts may not be as objective as the modernist believed but reflects that authors bias, prejudices, and peculiarities. According to postmodernism, language forms a critical part of an individual, and it is on the basis of one’s language that one comes to know the truth. From this viewpoint, the truth is a matter of individual perception since no one can remove himself from the perception of issues in one’s environment.

Works cited

Cornel Steve. What does postmodern mean? Web. Accessed on 29 March 2015 from <https://thinkpoint.wordpress.com/2007/02/22/25/>
Brian Duigman. Postmodernism. 2014. Web. Accessed on 29 March 2015 from <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/1077292/postmodernism>