Postmodernism/Poststructuralism/Enlightenment Essay Example

of man especially the one that concerned with the individual, society and state. Enlightenment plays a vital role in the manifestation of a movement known as modernism (Kant,1991; p. 180-185) . Modernism by itself is a mount of knowledge which asserts the ability of man to build, develop and improve their environment with the use of existing technology and a wide-range of scientific thoughts and ideas.

Generally, modernism depicts a succession of cultural movements in arts, literature, music and many other applied arts. Moreover, the idea of modernism is that rejection of traditions would radically gives way in the emergence of new ways of making arts as stated in Kant’s Political Writings (1991; p. 177-190). Immanuel Kant conception of Enlightenment focuses on the idea of “maturity”, which is glossed as the use of reason. He pointed out that motto of Enlightenment is “Have courage to use your own understanding! (Kant, 1991:177).

Kant also established the idea of “public” and the “private” uses of reasons. He connects the Enlightenment as a social, political and cultural ideal to dialogue and therefore to publicity. He pointed out that “private” use of reason is restricted; meaning one must not argue but obey. By the use of this reason, Kant seems to mean the roles that theorist would call a person’s social roles. For an instance, a professor is not permitted to debate a particular thing as an instructor, but only as an ordinary being.

Aside from this, Kant’s claims bring serious questions about the extent of permissible debate limits of “practical reason. ” Kant gives parallelism of the pubic use of reason with the philosophy faculty of the university, the lower faculty

and the vocation of seeking the truth discussion. He believes that all people of an open society must take and perform his role if public discourse is to make improvement. In addition, higher university faculties in law, medicine and theology are concerned with the private use of reason. Since they are agents of the government, they must obey and must not complain.

Things are not smooth for enlightenment. The basic claims of enlightenment are greatly opposed by some people. Despite of the radical potential of Kant’s ideologies, postmodernist challenges his doctrines. For some critics (mainly postmodernist and poststructuralist), Kant appears to defend bourgeois society. His ambivalence was clearly manifested in his belief that philosophy faculty is an agent of the state yet hopes that political rulers would become more reasonable and less tyrant as a result of the existing relationship.

Kant’s ideas on publicity and political judgment narrowed the range of public sphere resulting to distrust of the masses. This negative intuition on the intelligence of masses is one the political weaknesses of Enlightenment(Kant 1991; p. 177-190). Foucault commented Kant’s works as sometimes radical and often elitist. According to him, it is because of the failure of enlightenment to separate the two distinct things but closely related ideas. Foucault avoids moral judgment about what is good or bad.

It is more significant to him to anticipate and recognized that all things are dangerous. The limits of reason need to be examined and transgress often not hoping that we will become a utopian society however a society which is less repressive than ours is always a possibility (Focault 1984; p32-50). Derrida stated that there are certain things about enlightenment

that needs to criticize or “deconstruct. ” Deconstruction refers to the application of postmodern concepts of criticism or theory.

Poststructutralist like Jacques Derrida, who established the term deconstruction, have arguments that if deconstruction exists then there was no importance to text and purely a disparity of difference (Foucualt, 1984: 45-50). Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche criticizes the idea that truth, knowledge and rationality are more important than anything else (Pugliese, 1994; p. 163-170). Nietzsche pointed out that when enlightenment is carried to the full extent, it destroys what is essential in life, or even life itself. He noted that even what is important and valuable cannot be “prove” by scientific concepts.

Science itself may rely on faith. He also believes that enlightenment can bring destruction and eventually be irrational. It is irrational in the sense that it devastates everything which does not convene its set standards, especially if those requirements cannot themselves be proven (Pugliese 1994; 163-182). From the arguments of Nietzsche, there are two conflicting ideas on enlightenment; the view that enlightenment brings improvement and development of human life and versus the idea that enlightenment can be so destructible to the life of mankind (Nietzsche), hence enlightenment contradicts itself.

Postmodernism is a term used in various and vast set of development in critical theory, culture, art, philosophy, film, literature and architecture, which is primarily a reaction to prevailing modernism. Postmodernism emerge because of the failure of modernism. According to Michael Kruger, Postmodernity does not support objective truth and uphold that the only absolute in the universe is that there are no absolute. To the modernist view, the truth can be found in reason and science while on the postmodernist

truth is created not found. Truth is only in the mind of people (Pugliese 1994; p. 163-183).

Their criterion of truth is simply what works. Another important idea that challenges enlightenment is Poststructuralism. Like Postmodernism, Poststructuralism refers to the development (intellectual) in philosophy and other critical theories which is basically a reaction to structuralism. Structuralism refers to various theories which include humanities, social sciences and economics that assumes that structural relationships between the thoughts and ideas vary with different cultures. Structuralism rejects the philosophy of the subject and the view of human agency and history that is vital to critical theory and other forms of humanism.

It examines the behaviors of man and society in terms of the formal intuition of structure, system and binary oppositions. The structuralist kept on mind the concepts of objectivity and determinate representation. It involves the works of Saussure in linguistics, Levi-Strauss in anthropology, Althusser and Lacan’s version of Freud and psychoanalysis. Durkheim and Mauss are the founders of structuralism (Lye, 1997). Theory is important to postmodernist, but the task of theory, and its basic orientation, is not the universal truth of the Enlightenment but particular to daily demands.

One must be more rigorous and honest than defenders of the dogmas of Enlightenment can allow themselves to be; one must be critical on dealing on questions and assumptions to test their limits. Post modernist and Poststructuralist concern about the other side of reason; women’s voices and points of view, people of the color, third world people, traditions of European counter-enlightenment and other non-Europeans who have been marginalized by the dominating notions of reasons and privileged hierarchies that jive with them.

Due to the dogmas

of Enlightenment, these views became irrational by definition. Postmodernists try to diversified the horizons of reason by restricting the influence of one powerful but little and dogmatic notion of reason. Other challenge for the Enlightenment is the failure of this movement to improve the lives poor people. Instead it brings misery to them. For example in United States, modernism perished in 1973 due to the removal of the Pruitt-Igoe housing projects in St. Louis.

Americans realized that utopian experiments, reason, science and technology had no success in improving the lives people, particularly the poor masses, and instead gives miserable condition on them (Focault 1984; p. 45-50). People were not satisfied with the ideas of Enlightenment (reason and science). Enlightenment’s disability to solve all human problems and transform a society into a perfect society resulted to a dissatisfaction of man. Postmodernists and Poststructuralists were not really against Enlightenment.

If you’re talking about the doctrines that grew out of the Enlightenment such as positivism, value neutrality, the blind faith of science and technology, cost-benefit analysis, utopian philosophy and the concept of totality and unification, Postmodernism is against Enlightenment. Conversely, if you’re talking ideas of Enlightenment like ethos of honesty and probity, criticism and the uniform probing and surpassing of contemporary assumptions and practices then Postmodernism and Poststructuralist is not against Enlightenment (Lye, 1997).

For instance, Foucault is not against Enlightenment, nor an “irrationalist”. He makes it very clear. “But that does not mean than one has to be “for” or “against” the Enlightenment. It even means precisely that one has to refuse everything that might itself in the form of a simplistic and authoritarian alternative: you either accept the Enlightenment

and remain within the tradition of its rationalism… or else you criticize the Enlightenment and then try to escape from its principles of rationality…. And do not break free of this blackmail by introducing “dialectical” nuances in the Enlightenment” (Foucault, 1984: 43).

Postmodernism and poststructuralism definitely wanted to radicalize the assumptions of Enlightenment. As we can see postmodernism and poststructuralism attempted to challenge the narratives and assumptions of Enlightenment philosophers but for some reasons they also give considerations to Enlightenment and in fact there are some ideas that they gather and became the basis of their studies and theories.