University of New Hampshire University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository Doctoral Dissertations Student Scholarship Spring 1991 Postmodernism as the sociocultural deconstruction of modernity Steven Craig Ward University of New Hampshire, Durham Follow this and additional works at: https://scholars.unh.edu/dissertation Recommended Citation Ward, Steven Craig, "Postmodernism as the sociocultural deconstruction of modernity" (1991). Doctoral Dissertations. 1658. https://scholars.unh.edu/dissertation/1658 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Scholarship at University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized administrator of University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. INFORMATION TO USERS This manuscript has been reproduced from the microfilm master. 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Photographs included in the original manuscript have been reproduced xerographically in this copy. Higher quality 6" x 9" black and white photographic prints are available for any photographs or illustrations appearing in this copy for an additional charge. Contact UMI directly to order. University Microfilms International A Bell & Howell Information Company 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor Ml 48106-1346 USA 313 761-4700 800 521 0600 Order Num ber 9181800 Postmodernism as the sociocultural deconstruction of modernity Ward, Steven Craig, Ph.D. University of New Hampshire, 1991 Copyright ©1991 fay Ward, Steven Craig. All rights reserved. UMI 300 N. Zeeb Rd. Ann Arbor, MI 48106 POSTMODERNISM AS THE SOCIO-CULTURAL DECONSTRUCTION OF MODERNITY BY Steven C. Hard BA, University of Arkansas/Little Rock MA, University of New Hampshire DISSERTATION Submitted to the University of New Hampshire in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Sociology May, 1991 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED c 1991 Steven C. Ward This dissertation has been examined and approved. Dissertation Director, Bud B. Khlei Professor of Sociology Melvin T. Bobick Professor of Sociology Stephan Fuchs Assistant Professor of Sociology Barbara T. Cooper Associate Professor of'French R. Valentine Dusek Associate Professor of Philosophy DEDICATION To Karen iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Since work began on this dissertation in 1989, I have accumulated many intellectual and personal debts. First of among these are those I owe to my dissertation committee, Bud B. Khleif, Melvin Bobick, Stephan Fuchs, Barbara Cooper, and Val Dusek. Each member has contributed their own unique perspective to this final product. I consider myself fortunate to have had such a diverse and supportive committee. Two of these members deserve special recognition. First, to my thesis director, Professor Khleif, for years of guidance and inspiration. Secondly, to Stephan Fuchs for providing me with a different vision of what sociology is all about. I would also like to thank Susan Frankel, Steve Sweet, and Tom McGowan for feedback or for merely nodding their head approvingly when I talked about the dissertation. Finally, and most importantly, I would like to thank Karen Roth. Her love and support has made this ordeal bearable and even at times rewarding. v TABLE OF CONTENTS DEDICATION.............................................. iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS......................................... v ABSTRACT................................................. ix CHAPTER I. GENERAL INTRODUCTION: THE CONTEMPORARY DEBATE ON POSTMODERNISM..................................... 1 The Etiology of Postmodernism................. 4 The Debate in Social Theory................... 9 The Debate Over Aesthetic Form in Architecture and Art........................................ 16 The Search for Political Foundations......... 19 The Postmodern Framework...................... 24 Plan of the Chapters.......................... 27 II. THE DOMINANT DISCOURSE OF MODERNITY.............. 34 Modern Thought and Social Change.............. 3 6 Condillac: Reason and the Problem of Language....................................... 37 Condorcet and the Progress of the Human Spirit......................................... 43 Rousseau: Modernity and the Self.............. 48 Summary: Janus-Faced Modernity................ 53 III. MODERNITY AND ITS CENTRAL PARADOXES.............. 56 The Recognition of Modernity.................. 57 December, 1910................................ 60 Nietzsche, Nihilism, and Modernity............ 67 Weber: Modernity-as-Rationalization.......... 76 Simmel and The Conflict in Modern Culture 83 Summary........................................ 89 vi IV. LANGAUGE, REFERENTIALITY, AND POSTMODERNISM..... 92 Saussure and the Arbitrary Nature of the Sign........................................... 94 Language and Anthropology: Whorf and Levi-Strauss................................... 103 Derrida: Language and Presence................ 113 Postmodernism and the Linguistic Turn........ 126 V. THE DECENTERING OF THE SUBJECT IN POSTMODERN THOUGHT........................................... 130 The Meaning of the Modern Subject............. 131 Freud, Lacan, and the Unconscious............. 134 Foucault and the Genealogy of the Subject 143 Pop-Art, Authenticity and the Subject........ 161 Summary........................................ 169 VI. THE CRITIQUE OF RATIONALITY, PROGRESS, AND EMANCIPATION.................................. 171 The Dialectic of Enlightenment................ 176 Communicative Rationality or Incommensurable Language Games: The Habermas/Lyotard Debate... 186 The Ironic Historicism of Postmodern Architecture................................... 202 Conclusion: Post-Metanarrative Politics...... 210 VII. TOWARDS A SOCIOLOGICAL-INFORMED POSTMODERNISM 213 The Modern and the Postmodern: An Overview.... 217 Modern Sociology: Between Positivism and Realism......................................... 223 • Baudrillard and the End of the Social-as- Real............................................ 231 Rethinking Durkheim: The Encounter with Pragmatism...................................... 241 Conclusion...................................... 254 vii VIII. FROM A PHILOSOPHY TO A SOCIOLOGY OF TRUTH: RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN THE SOCIOLOGY OF KNOWLEDGE........................................ 257 The Sociology of Knowledge: From Mannheim to the "Strong Program"....................... 261 From Logic to Sociologic: Latour's Constructivist View of Science................ 271 Conclusion: A Sociology of Truth.............. 282 IX. GROUP SOLIDARITY AND SYMBOLISM: THE PRODUCTION AND CONSUMPTION OF POSTMODERNISM 286 The Social Organization of Cognitive Styles......................................... 291 The Production of Postmodern Knowledge....... 304 The New Bourgeoisie and the Reception of Postmodern Culture............................ 316 Conclusion..................................... 325 X. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION.................. 327 The Postmodern Framework..................... 328 Social Epistemology.......................... 330 Social Organization and Postmodern Skepticism.................................... 334 Summary....................................... 337 BIBLIOGRAPHY............................................ 342 GLOSSARY................................................ 359 viii ABSTRACT POSTMODERNISM AS THE SOCIO-CULTURAL DECONSTRUCTION OF MODERNITY by Steven C. Ward University of New Hampshire, May, 1991 This work seeks to provide a description of the theoretical positions and cultural expressions of postmodernism and to provide a sociological critique of its conclusions. The work uses the writings of the Derrida, Foucault, Lyotard, Lacan, and Baudrillard, as well as arguments in neo-pop art and postmodern architecture, as representatives of the postmodern position on the issues of referentiality, subjectivity, and rationality. Postmodernism is treated as a skeptical theoretical and cultural system which levels all ideational distinctions between belief and knowledge and truth and rhetoric. This work argues that a social or constructivist epistemology can provide a different way of approaching the issues of knowledge and truth, which avoids postmodernism's skeptical and nihilistic conclusions. Postmodernism is seen as making sociological arguments against traditional philosophical distinctions, but drawing idealistic conclusions about the end of all meaning. Using the Neo-Durkheimians orientation towards cognitive style and the constructivist position in the sociology of scientific ix scientific knowledge