Explaining Postmodernism
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Sch ExPostmodern COV 6/25/04 11:21 AM Page 1 Tracing postmodernism from its roots in Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Immanuel Kant to their development in thinkers such as Michel Foucault and Richard Rorty, philoso- pher Stephen Hicks provides a provocative account of why postmodernism has been the most vigorous intellectual movement of the late 20th century. Why do skeptical and relativistic arguments have such power in the contemporary intellectual world? Why do they have that power in the humanities but not in the sci- ences? Why has a significant portion of the political Left—the same Left that tradition- ally promoted reason, science, equality for all, and optimism—now switched to themes of anti-reason, anti-science, double standards, and cynicism? Explaining Postmodernism is intellectual history with a polemical twist, providing fresh insights into the debates underlying the furor over political correctness, multicultur- alism, and the future of liberal democracy. Praise for Explaining Postmodernism: Stephen Hicks has written an insightful and biting commentary on the nature of postmodernism and its revolt against the Enlightenment. He situates the movement in a larger historical context and analyzes its cultural and political implications. Even when one disagrees with Hicks’s interpretations, his work will challenge and provoke. This is must-reading for anyone interested in philosophy-by-essentials. —Chris Matthew Sciabarra, Department of Politics, New York University Explaining Postmodernism is extremely valuable for understanding postmodernism from a standpoint outside of and critical of it. Perhaps the most important value of the work is Professor Hicks’s analytical skill in isolating the essential theses of postmodern writers, in summarizing the historical background, and in tracing the lines of development that led to postmodernism. In addition to clear expositions of Hegel, Heidegger, and other thinkers, the book has what I think is a brilliant analysis of the pathways by which skeptical questions that Enlightenment thinkers asked led to the nihilism of Derrida and Foucault. —David Kelley, Executive Director, The Objectivist Center Stephen Hicks is Professor of Philosophy at Rockford College, Illinois. A native of Toronto, Canada, he received his Ph.D. from Indiana University. He is co-edi- tor of Readings for Logical Analysis (W.W. Norton & Co.) and has published wide- ly in academic journals and other publications such as The Wall Street Journal and The Baltimore Sun. $18.95 (US) $24.95 (CDN) PUBLISHING Explaining Postmodernism Explaining Postmodernism Skepticism and Socialism from Rousseau to Foucault Stephen R. C. Hicks Scholargy Publishing Tempe New Berlin/Milwaukee Scholargy Publishing, Tempe, Arizona and New Berlin/Milwaukee, Wisconsin © 2004 by Stephen R. C. Hicks All rights reserved. Published 2004 Printed in the United States of America 04 05 06 07 08 09 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 First Edition Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data pending Hicks, Stephen R. C., 1960- Explaining postmodernism: skepticism and socialism from Rousseau to Foucault / Stephen Hicks. p. cm. Includes bibliographic references. Includes index. ISBN: 1-59247-646-5 (cloth) ISBN: 1-59247-642-2 (paper) 1. Title. 2. Intellectual History—Modern. 3. Socialism—History. 4. United States— Intellectual Life—20th century. 5. Education, Higher— Political aspects. This book is printed on acid-free paper. 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 Modern and postmodern 5 Modernism and the Enlightenment 7 Postmodernism versus the Enlightenment 14 Postmodern academic themes 16 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 28 Kant’s problematic from empiricism and rationalism 29 Kant’s essential argument 33 Identifying Kant’s key assumptions 36 Why Kant is the turning point 39 ii After Kant: reality or reason but not both 42 Metaphysical solutions to Kant: from Hegel to Nietzsche 44 Dialectic and saving religion 47 Hegel’s contribution to postmodernism 50 Epistemological solutions to Kant: irrationalism from Kierkegaard to Nietzsche 51 Summary of irrationalist themes 57 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 epistemology 80 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 110 iii Fichte on education as socialization 113 Hegel on worshipping the state 120 From Hegel to the twentieth century 124 Right versus Left collectivism in the twentieth century 126 The Rise of National Socialism: Who are the real socialists? 131 Chapter Five: The Crisis of Socialism Marx and waiting for Godot 135 Three failed predictions 136 Socialism needs an aristocracy: Lenin, Mao, and the lesson of the German Social Democrats 138 Good news for socialism: depression and war 141 Bad news: liberal capitalism rebounds 143 Worse news: Khrushchev’s revelations and Hungary 146 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 oppression plus repression 159 The rise and fall of Left terrorism 167 From the collapse of the New Left to postmodernism 171 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 contradictory discourses as a political strategy 184 Machiavellian postmodernism 186 Machiavellian rhetorical discourses 187 Deconstruction as an educational strategy 188 iv Ressentiment postmodernism 191 Nietzschean ressentiment 193 Foucault and Derrida on the end of man 195 Ressentiment strategy 198 Post-postmodernism 201 Bibliography 202 Index 215 Acknowledgements 230 * * * v List of Tables and Charts Chart 1.1: Defining Pre-modernism and Modernism 8 Chart 1.2: The Enlightenment Vision 13 Chart 1.3: Defining Pre-modernism, Modernism, and Postmodernism 15 Chart 5.1: Marxism on the Logic of Capitalism 138 Chart 5.2: Total Livestock in the Soviet Union 145 Chart 5.3: Gross Physical Output for Selected Food Items 145 Chart 5.4: Deaths from Democide Compared to Deaths from International War, 1900-1987 148 Chart 5.5: Left Terrorist Groups’ Founding Dates 168 Chart 5.6: The Evolution of Socialist Strategies 173 * * * Chapter One What Postmodernism Is The postmodern vanguard By most accounts we have entered a new intellectual age. We are postmodern now. Leading intellectuals tell us that modernism has died, and that a revolutionary era is upon us—an era liberated from the oppressive strictures of the past, but at the same time disquieted by its expectations for the future. Even postmodernism’s oppo- nents, surveying the intellectual scene and not liking what they see, acknowledge a new cutting edge. In the intellectual world, there has been a changing of the guard. The names of the postmodern vanguard are now familiar: Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida, Jean-François Lyotard, and Richard Rorty. They are its leading strategists. They set the direction of the movement and provide it with its most potent tools. The vanguard is aided by other familiar and often infamous names: Stanley Fish and Frank Lentricchia in literary and legal criticism, Catharine MacKinnon and Andrea Dworkin in feminist legal criticism, Jacques Lacan in psychology, Robert Venturi and Andreas 2 Explaining Postmodernism Huyssen in architectural criticism, and Luce Irigaray in the criticism of science. Members of this elite group set the direction and tone for the postmodern intellectual world. Michel Foucault has identified the major targets: “All my analyses are against the idea of universal necessities in human existence.”1 Such necessities must be swept aside as baggage from the past: “It is meaningless to speak in the name of—or against— Reason, Truth, or Knowledge.”2 Richard Rorty has elaborated on that theme, explaining that that is not to say that postmodernism is true or that it offers knowledge. Such assertions would be self-contradictory, so post- modernists must use language “ironically.” The difficulty faced by a philosopher who, like myself, is sympathetic to this suggestion [e.g., Foucault’s]—one who thinks of himself as auxiliary to the poet rather than to the physicist—is to avoid hinting that this suggestion gets something right, that my sort of philosophy corresponds to the way things really are. For this talk of correspondence brings back just the idea my sort of philosopher wants to get rid of, the idea that the world or the self has an intrinsic nature.3 If there is no world or self to understand and get right on their terms, then what is the purpose of thought or action? Having deconstructed reason, truth, and the idea of the correspondence of thought to reality, and then set them aside—“reason,” writes Foucault, “is the ultimate language of madness”4—there is nothing to guide or constrain our thoughts and feelings.