What does 'postmodernism' mean?

Question

What does 'postmodernism' mean?

Answer 1

Postmodernism is a vast umbrella term for many different fields including architecture, art, poetry, music etc... but I assume, since you've published your question in this section, you want it's philosophical connotations?

It helps to know that "modernism" was characterized by a huge reverence for rational arguments reaching objective truths. This is exemplified by the so-called "modern" philosophers e.g. Leibniz, Spinoza, Descartes, Berkeley, etc...

Postmodernism, on the other hand, largely rejected the notion of objective truths as either unattainable or, worse, simply non-existent. So called 'anti-foundationalists' and 'deconstructionists' such as Wittgenstein, Derrida, and Heidegger challenged the traditional notion of rationality (the sharp dichotomy of the "real" and the "apparent"), that the modernists so depended on in their arguments.

Then the existentialists (from Kierkegaard and Nietzsche) challenged moral, social and religious absolute norms and replaced them with a postmodern emphasis on subjectivity and choice. Popular philosophy (including here on Y/A) largely follow these ideas...we are all the product of our culture right...?

Hope some of that helps, but it is true that the term is banded around so much these days that it has come to mean whatever you want it to be (as long as it is vs. objective truths).

Answer 2

post·mod·ern·ism [pst móddər nìzzəm]

noun

style developed in reaction to modernism: a style in architecture, art, literature, and criticism developed after and often in reaction to modernism, characterized by reference to other periods or styles in a self-conscious way and a rejection of the notion of high art