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Explaining Postmodernism

Skepticism and Socialism from Rousseau to Foucault

Expanded Edition

Stephen R. C. Hicks

Ockham's Razor Publishing Contents

Thesis: The failure of epistemology made postmodernism possible, and the failure of socialism made postmodernism necessary.

List of Tables and Charts v Chapter One: What Postmodernism Is The postmodern vanguard 1 Foucault, Lyotard, Derrida, Rorty Modem and postmodern 5 Modernism and the Enlightenment 7 Postmodernism versus the Enlightenment 14 Postmodern academic themes 15 Postmodern cultural themes 18 Why postmodernism? 20 Chapter Two: The Counter-Enlightenment Attack on Reason Enlightenment reason, liberalism, and science 23 The beginnings of the Counter-Enlightenment 24 Kant's skeptical conclusion 27 Kant's problematic from empiricism and-rationalism 29 Kant's essential argument 32 Identifying Kant's key assumptions 36 Why Kant is the turning point 39 After Kant: reality or reason but not both 42 Metaphysical solutions to Kant: from Hegel to Nietzsche 44 Dialectic and saving religion 46 Hegel's contribution to postmodernism 50 Epistemological solutions to Kant: irrationalism from Kierkegaard 51 to Nietzsche Summary of irrationalist themes 56 ii

Chapter Three: The Twentieth-Century Collapse of Reason Heidegger's synthesis of the Continental tradition 58 Setting aside reason and logic 61 Emotions as revelatory 62 Heidegger and postmodernism 65 Positivism and Analytic philosophy: from Europe to America 67 From Positivism to Analysis 70 Recasting philosophy's function 72 Perception, concepts, and logic 74 From the collapse of Logical Positivism to Kuhn and Rorty 78 Summary: A vacuum for postmodernism to fill 79 First thesis: Postmodernism as the end result of Kantian 80 epistemology Chapter Four: The Climate of Collectivism From postmodern epistemology to postmodern politics 84 The argument of the next three chapters 86 Responding to socialism's crisis of theory and evidence 89 Back to Rousseau 91 Rousseau's Counter-Enlightenment 92 Rousseau's collectivism and statism 96 Rousseau and the French Revolution 100 Counter-Enlightenment Politics: Right and Left collectivism 104 Kant on collectivism and war 106 Herder on multicultural relativism 109 Fichte on education as socialization 112 Hegel on worshipping the state 120 From Hegel to the twentieth century 124 Right versus Left collectivism in the twentieth century 125 The Rise of National Socialism: Who are the real socialists? 130 Chapter Five: The Crisis of Socialism Marxism and waiting for Godot 135 Three failed predictions 136 Socialism needs an aristocracy: Lenin, Mao, and the lesson of the 138 German Social Democrats Good news for socialism: depression and war 141 Bad news: liberal capitalism rebounds 143 Worse news: Khrushchev's revelations and Hungary 145 iii

Responding to the crisis: change socialism's ethical standard 150 From need to equality 151 From wealth is good to wealth is bad 153 Responding to the crisis: change socialism's epistemology 156 Marcuse and the Frankfurt School: Marx plus Freud, or 159 oppression plus repression The rise and fall of Left terrorism 166 From the collapse of the New Left to postmodernism 170 Chapter Six: Postmodern Strategy Connecting epistemology to politics 174 Masks and rhetoric in language 175 When theory clashes with fact 178 Kierkegaardian postmodernism 179 Reversing Thrasymachus 182 Using contradictor)' discourses as a political strategy 184 Machiavellian postmodernism 186 Machiavellian rhetorical discourses 187 Deconstruction as an educational strategy 188 Ressentiment postmodernism 191 Nietzschean ressentiment 192 Foucault and Derrida on the end of man 195 Ressentiment strategy 198 Post-postmodernism 201 Bibliography 202 Index 212 Acknowledgements 223 Two Additional Essays Free Speech and Postmodernism Sample speech codes 225 Why not rely on the First Amendment? 226 Context: why the Left? 227 Affirmative action as a working example 228 Egalitarianism 231 Inequalities along racial and sexual lines 233 The social construction of minds 234 Speakers and censors 236 iv

The heart of the debate 238 The justification of freedom of speech 239 Three special cases 241 Racial and sexual hate speech 242 The university as a special case 243 From Modern to Postmodern Art: Why Art Became Ugly Introduction: the death of modernism 247 Modernism's themes 248 Postmodernism's four themes 257 The future of art 263

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