Monty Cantsin
19th November 2005, 04:35
Post-modern Philosophical Martyrdom
“How unconscionable it is to reproach the master with having a hidden motive behind his insight” Karl Marx, ‘Notebooks on Epicurean Philosophy’.
In the age of ‘post-modern’ philosophical martyrdom, writers throw themselves against the jagged edge of absurdity. To demonstrate Deleuze concept of philosophy as the ‘horror of discourses’, post-modernist invoke this horror. A ‘post-modern’ world of narratives with no inherent value, an intellectual ‘Desert of the Real’, a ‘Mire of the Macadam’ as Baudelaire described the 19th century social reality. The Intertextuality (1) not in Barthes view but in Kristeva’s conception in action sees this post-modern intellectual milieu creating and predicating this horror of occult ‘overmen’ which Nietzsche could be proud, though slightly baffled (2).
Michel Foucault defines post-modern as a cultural attitude of critical evaluation of a historical condition; Foucault’s being that of Post-Industrial (3) and Post-Taylorist (4) society. Post-modern is counterpoised with “the will to “heroize” the present” as Foucault defines the ‘modernist’ attitude to Modernity (5). Foucault was proposing a ‘critical theory’ however ‘uncritical’ others have characterised his philosophy. This new critical theory while It claimed to understand “the axis of power” set itself narrow limits:-
“We know from experience that the claim to escape from the system of contemporary reality so as to produce the overall programs of another society, of another way of thinking, another culture, another vision of the world, has led only to the return of the most dangerous traditions.” (Foucault’s ‘What is Enlightenment?’)
The ability to escape, to rapture into world without power is unattainable; certain types of power can be transgressed and transformed. Foucault essay “what is enlightenment?” contains many points worth attention.
A) In not rejecting Enlightenment ideals outright Foucault accepts Kant’s notion of striving to rid oneself of a self-imposed immaturity, the transformation from being a devotee to a free thinker. The process of riding yourself of immaturity in thought is what Kant called the process of enlightenment.
B) Foucault rejects the element of enlightenment that creates universal schemes of transcendence or universal values. Thus Foucault rejects grand-narratives in place of micro-narratives. Foucault wrote “I shall thus characterize the philosophical ethos appropriate to the critical ontology of ourselves as a historico-practical test of the limits we may go beyond, and thus as work carried out by ourselves upon ourselves as free beings” (What is Enlightenment?).
C) “Structuralist” was a label Foucault rejected when applied to his work, which is why his is often called a ‘post-structuralist’. His rejection of grand-narratives creates an artificial structure which impedes any attempted Transcendence and transgressing of the barrier of micro-narratives. Thus Foucault’s crypto-Structuralism of micro-narratives is itself a grand-narrative which declares the end of the Marco-process of devolvement and the end of history, the last society.
This philosophy takes the name of ‘critical theory’ but through its ‘critical’ shell it resembles theories noted for their uncritical attitudes and what Foucault would detest as ‘modernist’. Hegel’s aphorism, “What is rational is real; and what is real is rational” encapsulates the uncritical nature of Hegel’s thought and as Marx wrote “Hegel’s standpoint is that of modern political economy” (Marx’s “critique of Hegel’s philosophy in general”). This weakness of Hegel’s philosophy in being an apologist for the established order cannot be avoided with such a system in which its highest aim is “a reconciliation of the self-conscious reason with the reason which is in the world — in other words, with actuality”. Hegel declared the end of history in 1806, the attainment of human self-consciousness highest reconciliation with the absolute (god, reason itself) embodied within the modern state, though he allude to micro changes. Hegel could be considered the embodiment of an uncritical philosophy who ‘heroize’ his historical condition with no chances of ‘grand’ transformation.
Jean-François Lyotard developed a similar system as Foucault; he defined the post-modern attitude as "incredulity towards metanarratives", metanarratives are stories fashioned in a perspective which are used by their creators to assert authority. The Stalinists who declares their parties as the only road to socialism and the “storming of heaven” are constructing a metanarrative to assert their parties dominance and authority. Lyotard considered all grand-narratives and Universalist projects as metanarratives and thus advocated micro-narratives. As Foucault constructed his own structuralism, Lyotard created his own metanarrative.
The restrictive discourse of post-modernist is not limited to Lyotard and Foucault. Jean Baudrillard another French ‘critical’ theorist writes on ‘the end of history thesis’. A similar thesis is held by the neo-conservative Francis Fukuyama. Post-modern ‘critical theories’ differ from the pessimistic praxis detached Frankfurt school(6) critical theories, by lacking the positive dialectic of minimal utopianism and historical imagination, the anthesis of negation the negative(7). Therefore post-modernist with their extreme scepticism towards grand-narratives will remain philosophical Martyrs who throw themselves into criticism and crash against their own creation, a dialogue of universal meaninglessness and restriction, a horror of discourse.
Notes to Post-modern Philosophical Martyrdom.
1)Intertextuality is a term coined by Julia Kristeva in 1966 to denote the interdependent relationship between different texts that quote, allude and generally draw meaning from each other. The use of Intertextuality within modern text is wide spread, ‘the Simpson’ draw much of its hummer from this technique of creating meaning. The ‘New Historicism’ school of literary theory which contends that the meaning of text it to be understood within its historical context, Thus looking to other text of the period to find meaning in the original text of inquiry. This presupposes a form of Intertextuality. Roland Barthes also used this term to refer to different theory relating to literary criticism. The idea that text contains two distinct meanings, a closed meaning traceable to the author and an open meaning depended on the viewer and his hermeneutics of the text. Barthes approach is similar to British ‘New Criticism’ though rejects meaning derived from the author not directly of the text focusing on the viewer.
2) Nietzsche would have been baffled because he believed that creativity derived from reabsorbed sperm, Julia Kristeva though would have twisted his convoluted world. At least we can take contentment in that a man with Syphilis remained celibate.
3) Post-industrial simply refers to societies in which primary and secondary industries constitute a smaller section of the economy compared with the service sector, typical economic structuring of affluent countries.
4) Post-Taylorist refers to the restructuring of management from Taylorist ‘scientific management’ to systems of employee relations which involve more self-activity of workers in the workplace. Elton Mayo through his ‘Hawthorne Studies’ developed a theory of management which stated the need to consider the ‘human’ side of a worker. This lead to less autocratic methods of leadership and the consideration of Human needs within workplaces to a degree though more liberal systems of management are not universal. The development represents a bourgeois reaction in co-opting progressive ideas for the reactionary aim of sustaining capitalism.
5) The question is still being debated if the ‘modern condition’ represents a new stage in modernity or constitutes a post-modernity or even hypermodernity. Marshall Berman conceptualises the modern condition as the continuation of modernity. Arguing that modernity and modernism are not monolithic but dialectical totalities, Modernism and Post-Modernism constitute two cultural attitudes that can be evoked towards modernity.
6) Frankfurt school is a group of heterodox Neo-Marxist scholars, who are criticized for their lack of political involvement focusing largely academic activities and publicists roles. I’ve called Frankfurt schoolers ‘Praxis detached’ because of their limited or non-existent practical engagements in Politics.
7) The Concept of theoretical Criticism or critique implies two parts that of negative and positive. Critical Negativity finds the object of criticism deficient in some form. The negativity leads to the positive which is the affirmation of a value or attribute found deficient in the object criticised. In Praxis negativity manifests itself in negation and the positive manifests itself in the product of transformation. The process of subjective idea transforming into objective condition through praxis involves risks.
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Comments?
“How unconscionable it is to reproach the master with having a hidden motive behind his insight” Karl Marx, ‘Notebooks on Epicurean Philosophy’.
In the age of ‘post-modern’ philosophical martyrdom, writers throw themselves against the jagged edge of absurdity. To demonstrate Deleuze concept of philosophy as the ‘horror of discourses’, post-modernist invoke this horror. A ‘post-modern’ world of narratives with no inherent value, an intellectual ‘Desert of the Real’, a ‘Mire of the Macadam’ as Baudelaire described the 19th century social reality. The Intertextuality (1) not in Barthes view but in Kristeva’s conception in action sees this post-modern intellectual milieu creating and predicating this horror of occult ‘overmen’ which Nietzsche could be proud, though slightly baffled (2).
Michel Foucault defines post-modern as a cultural attitude of critical evaluation of a historical condition; Foucault’s being that of Post-Industrial (3) and Post-Taylorist (4) society. Post-modern is counterpoised with “the will to “heroize” the present” as Foucault defines the ‘modernist’ attitude to Modernity (5). Foucault was proposing a ‘critical theory’ however ‘uncritical’ others have characterised his philosophy. This new critical theory while It claimed to understand “the axis of power” set itself narrow limits:-
“We know from experience that the claim to escape from the system of contemporary reality so as to produce the overall programs of another society, of another way of thinking, another culture, another vision of the world, has led only to the return of the most dangerous traditions.” (Foucault’s ‘What is Enlightenment?’)
The ability to escape, to rapture into world without power is unattainable; certain types of power can be transgressed and transformed. Foucault essay “what is enlightenment?” contains many points worth attention.
A) In not rejecting Enlightenment ideals outright Foucault accepts Kant’s notion of striving to rid oneself of a self-imposed immaturity, the transformation from being a devotee to a free thinker. The process of riding yourself of immaturity in thought is what Kant called the process of enlightenment.
B) Foucault rejects the element of enlightenment that creates universal schemes of transcendence or universal values. Thus Foucault rejects grand-narratives in place of micro-narratives. Foucault wrote “I shall thus characterize the philosophical ethos appropriate to the critical ontology of ourselves as a historico-practical test of the limits we may go beyond, and thus as work carried out by ourselves upon ourselves as free beings” (What is Enlightenment?).
C) “Structuralist” was a label Foucault rejected when applied to his work, which is why his is often called a ‘post-structuralist’. His rejection of grand-narratives creates an artificial structure which impedes any attempted Transcendence and transgressing of the barrier of micro-narratives. Thus Foucault’s crypto-Structuralism of micro-narratives is itself a grand-narrative which declares the end of the Marco-process of devolvement and the end of history, the last society.
This philosophy takes the name of ‘critical theory’ but through its ‘critical’ shell it resembles theories noted for their uncritical attitudes and what Foucault would detest as ‘modernist’. Hegel’s aphorism, “What is rational is real; and what is real is rational” encapsulates the uncritical nature of Hegel’s thought and as Marx wrote “Hegel’s standpoint is that of modern political economy” (Marx’s “critique of Hegel’s philosophy in general”). This weakness of Hegel’s philosophy in being an apologist for the established order cannot be avoided with such a system in which its highest aim is “a reconciliation of the self-conscious reason with the reason which is in the world — in other words, with actuality”. Hegel declared the end of history in 1806, the attainment of human self-consciousness highest reconciliation with the absolute (god, reason itself) embodied within the modern state, though he allude to micro changes. Hegel could be considered the embodiment of an uncritical philosophy who ‘heroize’ his historical condition with no chances of ‘grand’ transformation.
Jean-François Lyotard developed a similar system as Foucault; he defined the post-modern attitude as "incredulity towards metanarratives", metanarratives are stories fashioned in a perspective which are used by their creators to assert authority. The Stalinists who declares their parties as the only road to socialism and the “storming of heaven” are constructing a metanarrative to assert their parties dominance and authority. Lyotard considered all grand-narratives and Universalist projects as metanarratives and thus advocated micro-narratives. As Foucault constructed his own structuralism, Lyotard created his own metanarrative.
The restrictive discourse of post-modernist is not limited to Lyotard and Foucault. Jean Baudrillard another French ‘critical’ theorist writes on ‘the end of history thesis’. A similar thesis is held by the neo-conservative Francis Fukuyama. Post-modern ‘critical theories’ differ from the pessimistic praxis detached Frankfurt school(6) critical theories, by lacking the positive dialectic of minimal utopianism and historical imagination, the anthesis of negation the negative(7). Therefore post-modernist with their extreme scepticism towards grand-narratives will remain philosophical Martyrs who throw themselves into criticism and crash against their own creation, a dialogue of universal meaninglessness and restriction, a horror of discourse.
Notes to Post-modern Philosophical Martyrdom.
1)Intertextuality is a term coined by Julia Kristeva in 1966 to denote the interdependent relationship between different texts that quote, allude and generally draw meaning from each other. The use of Intertextuality within modern text is wide spread, ‘the Simpson’ draw much of its hummer from this technique of creating meaning. The ‘New Historicism’ school of literary theory which contends that the meaning of text it to be understood within its historical context, Thus looking to other text of the period to find meaning in the original text of inquiry. This presupposes a form of Intertextuality. Roland Barthes also used this term to refer to different theory relating to literary criticism. The idea that text contains two distinct meanings, a closed meaning traceable to the author and an open meaning depended on the viewer and his hermeneutics of the text. Barthes approach is similar to British ‘New Criticism’ though rejects meaning derived from the author not directly of the text focusing on the viewer.
2) Nietzsche would have been baffled because he believed that creativity derived from reabsorbed sperm, Julia Kristeva though would have twisted his convoluted world. At least we can take contentment in that a man with Syphilis remained celibate.
3) Post-industrial simply refers to societies in which primary and secondary industries constitute a smaller section of the economy compared with the service sector, typical economic structuring of affluent countries.
4) Post-Taylorist refers to the restructuring of management from Taylorist ‘scientific management’ to systems of employee relations which involve more self-activity of workers in the workplace. Elton Mayo through his ‘Hawthorne Studies’ developed a theory of management which stated the need to consider the ‘human’ side of a worker. This lead to less autocratic methods of leadership and the consideration of Human needs within workplaces to a degree though more liberal systems of management are not universal. The development represents a bourgeois reaction in co-opting progressive ideas for the reactionary aim of sustaining capitalism.
5) The question is still being debated if the ‘modern condition’ represents a new stage in modernity or constitutes a post-modernity or even hypermodernity. Marshall Berman conceptualises the modern condition as the continuation of modernity. Arguing that modernity and modernism are not monolithic but dialectical totalities, Modernism and Post-Modernism constitute two cultural attitudes that can be evoked towards modernity.
6) Frankfurt school is a group of heterodox Neo-Marxist scholars, who are criticized for their lack of political involvement focusing largely academic activities and publicists roles. I’ve called Frankfurt schoolers ‘Praxis detached’ because of their limited or non-existent practical engagements in Politics.
7) The Concept of theoretical Criticism or critique implies two parts that of negative and positive. Critical Negativity finds the object of criticism deficient in some form. The negativity leads to the positive which is the affirmation of a value or attribute found deficient in the object criticised. In Praxis negativity manifests itself in negation and the positive manifests itself in the product of transformation. The process of subjective idea transforming into objective condition through praxis involves risks.
---------------------------
Comments?