What does it mean to be human?
How do human beings fit into this vast cosmos?
Where are we from?
This are some of the questions that the postmodernism try to answer. But to understand why does post-modernism look for this answers, we must look at what came before. I'm refering to Modernism.
Modernism happened between 1870 and the mid of 1960's. It was grounded in the beliefs of the Enlightenment, "a time in western civilization in which the "great minds" of the West began to disbelieve in the authority of the Judea-Christian God as the basis for the truth and the law that under-gird society and culture." The established a new authority centred in man and his rational thinking.
Modernism believe that SCIENCE had shaken the foundations of traditional authorities and truths. Modern man could find a new, rational foundation for universal truth; science, particularly, would reveal a new truth, which, when applied to modern society and institutions, would literally remake the world.
Looking to man and not God, the OPTIMISM OF MODERNISM has proven itself ill-founded. The response has been POST-MODERNISM.
I will talk about post-modernism on detail on my next post.
TO BE CONTINUED...
